The HalfBlood Prince Has My Heart
by Ashkie Sage
Summary: A Severes Snape love story
1. Who you are

Sandy Melvorn (you)You are a Gryffindor student in your third year (same year as Severus)at Hogwarts. You have short, spiky, dirty blonde hair and dark blue eyes. Your skin is rather pale. You're friends with the Marauders, except Pettigrew (sorry, hate him too much lol) you do extremely well in all your classes and are naturally talented at spells and such. Your parents are nice people with great reputations in the wizarding world, they are both Aurors. You hope to be one too. You have a screech owl named Beaky and you love him a lot!


	2. Chapter 2

I was at King's Cross station waiting to be able to go through the barrier. It was my third year and i knew the drill but my mother was anxiously telling me that it wasn't ok to go yet. I chuckled at her worry because there was no need. When there were no muggles I turned around and hugged my mom and my dad quickly then ran through the barrier."Nice of you to join us." Sirius said. I smiled weakly at him; he never really was my cup of tea. Too egotistical for my taste."Glad you're happy to see me." I said."I'm glad to!" Pettigrew squeaked from beside James. I used all my strength to keep the disgusted expression off my face and smiled back instead. James and Sirius chuckled because anyone, except Peter, would be able to see past the smile to the disgust behind it. Peter had always fancied me and it grossed me out."Hey Remus." I said in return and hugged him. When we separated I could see the hurt look on Peter's face. It didn't bother me any though."What? No hug for me?" James said. I quickly gave him a huge hug and squeezed super hard.

"We good?"

"Yeah, but I don't think my ribs are." He grunted grabbing his ribs dramatically as if they were broken.

"Oh please, you play Quidditch, that was nothing!"

"You like Quidditch players huh?" This came from Sirius. "I can play you know." He bragged, jokingly.

"Can you? That's great to know but I like people that can play _good_." I said. "Sorry." I said somewhat seriously. I already said it, he's not my cup of tea.

"Well actually Sandy." Remus corrected me. The rest of the guys started laughing. I glared at Sirius for laughing but let the others off.

"You're supposed to be on MY side!" I hissed at Remus. He just shrugged and laughed.

I turned my back on all of them and saw Lily appear through the barrier. Her fiery red hair was extremely visible amongst the crowd. I loved her hair; it was so unique. Her green eyes went amazingly with it; she was beautiful and unique. Unlike my blonde hair and blue eyes, so unoriginal. But poor Lily had James all over her all of the time. I thought it was hilarious but helped when I could nonetheless.

I ran up and gave her a huge hug, catching her off guard. "Whoa Sandy, you scared me! She said hugging me fiercely back.

"Watch out, James is on his way over." I whispered to her. She sighed, frustrated.

Sure enough James and the rest of them were heading towards us. Silence fell when we were all gathered together. Not because Lily didn't like them, everyone was just waiting to see what James would say. He was very open with his feelings for Lily. The only downside, for me, with this was that because Peter wanted to be just like James he was slowly becoming more open with his feelings towards me. It grossed me out.

"Hey Lily, you look _fantastic_ today, just like always." So he was trying to be charming this time.

She glared at him. "Wish I could say the same for you."

Everyone laughed but James didn't falter at all. "So you think I look good sometimes huh? Well tell me what you like and that's what I'll do."

"What I'd like is for you to leave me alone." She said hopefully.

"Ok, sure thing." He said.

Everyone was surprised. James hadn't given up for two years straight. Why now?

"Really?" Lily sounded _very_ surprised.

"Just go out with me first." And there it was. The catch.

Lily's lips tightened and she grabbed her stuff and headed for the crowd. I laughed for a second with the guys then waved and ran after her with my stuff, hiding my laughter well. We were making our way to through the crowd when Severus Snape walked by. Lily nodded and I gave him a small smile. The guys were ridiculously mean to him, but me and Lily were nice. We didn't hang out with him or anything but did our best to keep James and Sirius at bay.

He ignored us and kept walking through the crowd. I was intrigued by him. His hair was greasy but not as greasy as everyone said and his nose, to me, fit his face fine even though it was a little big.

"Oh Snivellus!" called Sirius.

"Sirius he can't hear you, his greasy hair is sticking to his ears, making him almost completely deaf!" James said, obviously intending for Snape to hear him. Snape's shoulders tensed and his fists clenched but he kept walking, I could tell it was hard for him to do and I was glad he didn't do anything rash.

"What has he ever done to you!?" Lily was hissing at them.

"Look at him! Come on, Evans, he's bound to be on the dark side!" Sirius defended himself and James.

"Well you two will be to blame if he is!" She turned her back on them. I stayed with the guys though, she would be fuming for a few minutes and I didn't want to be around for that.

The train ride went by rather quickly with everyone talking and eating snacks from the trolley. Lily ignored James completely not even so much as glancing at him. No one worried about it, not even James; she'd be back to normal after the Feast. But first we had to sit through The Sorting. The only thing I looked forward to about the Sorting was the hat's new song. It was a different one every year, but the concept was always the same. The history of the houses and how they needed to stick together. Yeah right, the day Slytherin and Gryffindor even tolerated each other I'd give Pettigrew a massage.

Thankfully, I'd never have to worry about that. I hope.

We were all sitting in the Great Hall listening to the Headmaster's speech. As usual, it was uplifting and full of hope but not very believable. To me, it sounded rehearsed. But what did I know?

The Sorting began and everyone was getting antsy for the Feast. The first few students were sorted into Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. The next student, a young, malevolent looking boy, was sorted into Slytherin. The Slytherins cheered and James and Sirius yelled "BOO!!!" with Peter chiming in pathetically. They received a glare from a few teachers but didn't care.

The next student, another boy, was sorted into Gryffindor. Our table cheered with a bunch of students standing up and clapping and punching the air and such. My friends and I were among these people. No one in Slytherin booed or did anything except look sullen. As I was looking over at the Slytherin table, only for a second or two, I caught the eye of none other than Severus Snape.

I quickly turned away and sat back down realizing I was the only one standing anymore. My friends gave me amused looks.

"I wanted to show those Slytherins that Gryffindor is better in every department, even the cheering one." I lied to cover my embarrassment.

They didn't seem to believe me completely but left it at that. I was glad they did.

The tables all cheered when a new member was added to their house and the Gryffindors kept showing up the Slytherins in the cheering department with people wooping and howling their approval. And every once in a while someone would boo at the Slytherins. The most enjoyable Sorting in my three years but that wasn't saying much.

The Headmaster called for the Feast to begin, finally, and everyone dug in. the food was delicious as always and everyone, especially the men in our house, couldn't get eough of the food. Some girls tried to restrain themselves, not quite succeeding. I didn't. The food was delicious and I was going to eat as much as I wanted to.

The Feast ended and everyone was stuffed and happy. Conversation was going on everywhere especially once we were all dismissed. We headed to the common rooms; we had been instructed that our password was Holly-wobble.

On our way to the common room girls swarmed Sirius. He had his arm around two of them and they were giggling like mad. Every once in a while he'd lean over and whisper something into their ears and they'd giggle even more. It disgusted me. He should stick with one girl.

"Holly-wobble." I called to the portrait of the Fat Lady when we came up to her. She swung open and we entered the common room. I headed straight for the comfy arm chairs and plopped myself into one, sighing happily.

Lily sat on my side with James opposite her and Peter beside him. Remus was beside Peter and Sirius, after sending his fans away, sat in the chair beside me. I gave him a disgusted look and he smirked.

"Jealous Sandy?" he said cockily.

"Not at all." I said sincerely and he chuckled.

"You will be some day."

"You wish, Black. Why don't you just tell everyone how obsessed you are with me and get it over with." I said sarcastically, smiling.

"Oh yes, I cannot help myself any longer. If it weren't for us being surrounded by our friends I'd have trouble restraining myself." Sirius said dramatically. We all laughed.

After a few hours we all headed off to bed. Classes started tomorrow and we figured we should get a good night's rest to be prepared for it. Lily, Remus, and I weren't worried about it, we all got good grades. Sirius and James didn't worry either, they just barely passed every class except for Defense Against The Dark Arts. Peter got pity-passed by most of the teachers, he wasn't much good at anything.

_And school begins. I thought happily as I drifted to sleep._


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning we received our class schedules. We all had the same classes and at the same time so we were quite thrilled about that. Lily, Remus, and I knew that we were going to have to help Sirius and James pass their classes. They'd take our homework and we'd help them write essays and stuff. I personally didn't mind but I knew that Remus wished his friends would just try and Lily was apathetic towards the situation.

First class of the day was Potions. With Slyherin. Wonderful. Any class Slytherin and Gryffindor had together was bound to turn into a competition. A competition Gryffindor usually won. Especially since we had some of the smartest people in the school in our house. But in Potions the Slyterins had the advantage; Severus Snape.

The entire school knew of his genious when it came to Potions but that didn't stop them from ridiculing him. He had no friends, that I knew of, and he wandered alone looking angry and sullen all of the time. Most of his free time was spent in the dungeons where the Slytherin common room was. Whenever he was around people they made fun of him. Especially Sirius and James. They played pranks on Severus all the time; and the pranks were always mean.

"Sandy, will you sit with me?" Lily asked me tugging on the sleeve of my robe. I hadn't realised that I'd been staring directly at Snape who was also staring at me and I turned from him quickly and smiled at Lily.

"Yeah sure."

Sirius and James sat together and Peter sulked when he had to sit beside Remus. We occupied the three sets of desks at the back the room, aggravating the Slytherins who wanted these seats. Students milled about the classroom talking to each other until the teacher finally called everyone to order.

"Alright, alright, that's enough, sit down." called Professor Vera (_made up, I don't know the potions teacher's name for the era. If anyone does, please let me know!_)

The class quieted down and the Professor started the day "lightly" with a review on the potions we learned over the past two years. Lily, Remus, and I knew all of the answers, as did Severus Snape. By the end of the class Gyffindor had earned 30 points for its excellent memory and Slytherin 10.

"Poor Snivellus. You'll have to try harder if you want to beat us!" Sirius sneered close to Snape's face as we left the class. Severus whipped out his wand and shoved Sirius.

"Oh he wants a fight!" yelled James. Most students walked by, not wanting to get in trouble from a teacher if one was to walk by. Some stayed, including myself and Lily.

Severus said nothing but pointed his wand in James's direction.

"It's two on one, mate. You don't have a chance." Sirius said smiling, his wand out. But Snape's face remained expressionless.

"Expelliar-" James and Sirius began to shout. Lily's eyes widened.

"No!" I stepped between Snape and the guys.

Snape's expression quickly changed to one of anger. "I don't need your help Melvorn." He snapped.

"I never said you did Snape." I retorted. Then I turned back to James and Sirius. They looked rather angry.

"Look who's got a crush on Snivellus." Sirius snarled. I didn't react because I knew he was only saying it because he was mad.

"Yeah whatever Sirius. Sorry I won't let you both fight someone who's never done anything to you. And on unfair terms! Something must be wrong with me." I said sarcastically. The crowd had slowly drifted away so it was just us and Severus.

"I don't need you to defend me!" Snape growled.

This got to me. "Ok Snape, next time I'll let them have it then. Better?"

"Wonderful." He said through gritted teeth, stomping past me and heading to the dungeons.

Fuming I glanced at my schedule and saw that next I had Care of Magical Creatures outside. _Good, _I though. _Some fresh air'll do me some good right about now._

The air was tense as the six of us walked to our next class. I had no intentions of apologizing, I hadn't done anything wrong. I also had no intentions of sticking up for that self centered git again. I knew I would though. No matter how rude he was, I wouldn't let him, or anyone else, be bullied like that.

"Hello class and welcome to Care Of Magical Creatures!" called Professor Kettleburn. "We've got a great year ahead of us!" He was missing a limb or two but it didn't seem to bother him. Throughout the class he introduced us, for the third year n a row, to the Forbidden Forest and the rules regarding it. The fresh air and light class was enough to ease the tension between my friends and I, which I was glad about. Especially considering Defense Against The Dark Arts was next. Our favorite class.

CAMC went by quickly with no homework which was good. We headed back inside, making small talk, to Defense Against The Dark Arts. All of us were excited, especially James and Sirius since was the only class they excelled at.

"Let's do this!" James exclaimed as he entered the classroom. Sirius wooped and Professor Merrythought told them to take their seats. We sat in three desks with the same people as in Potions. Except that we had this class with the Ravenclaws instead of the Slytherins.

We reviewed simple disarming spells leading to Peter being disarmed by a raven claw and the James, Sirius, Remus, Lily, and I disarming our Ravenclaw opponents. Overall, Gryffindor had done better disarming and was awarded 15 points. We were off to a good start this year!

Herbology with Hufflepuff. Review like the rest of the classes. No points were won for Gryffindor in that class. Charms with the Slytherins lead to many "accidental" hexes being placed on students from both houses and the Professor docking 5 points from each house for it. History of Magic with the Ravenclaws was also uneventful but Professor Binns was as boring as ever. And to end the day, Divination. James and Sirius goofed around all class, being careful to wait until the Professor's back was turned. No points won or lost in that class either.

Overall, a rather good day. We went to bed happy and homework-less relishing in the non-existence of homework that night. It wouldn't be like this tomorrow.

"Night guys, see you all in the morning!" I called as Lily and I went up to bed.

"Night ladies! Hey Evans, if you get cold I've got some extra blankets in my bed!" James called and Lily threw a pillow at his head before following me up the steps. I suppressed my laughter and headed off to bed happily.


	4. Chapter 4

The first week of school came to an end with nothing major happening. Gryffindor managed to win quite a few points with our extensive knowledge, but James and Sirius managed to loose us a few of those points with their extensive slacking and general stupidity.

Snape had been progressively getting more and more on my nerves as the days went by. He'd glare at me if we met each other in the halls and snort when I raised my hand to answer a question. I could feel myself about to snap. Snape was lucky it was the weekend. A whole two days Snape-free. I sighed happily as I dumped my books on my bed after Friday's classes.

"I'm getting all my work done tonight so I don't have to worry about it." Lily stated. I sat up on my bed and considered her idea.

"Hmm…wise idea. I think I will do so also." I grabbed my books and went downstairs, pushing one of the comfy chairs to the table, struggling to do so.

"Yeah, don't help or anything." I grunted to the group of 5 people already gathered by the table.

"You seemed to be doing fine on your own." Sirius shrugged. I made a face at him when he turned back to the table.

Grunting, I got the chair to the table. It really wasn't all that heavy but I really wasn't all that strong either. Getting comfy in my chair, I pulled out my Potions books. We had a six-inch essay due Monday on the uses and properties of aconite. For Divination we were supposed to start our dream log but that could easily be made up in a few minutes.

I finished my essay in an hour and moved on to the dream log. Before doing so I glanced at Lily's work to see her finishing up and, when looking at Remus, noticing he had already began his dream log. James and Sirius had a few sentences scrawled on a piece of parchment and were flipping through the pages of their textbooks madly. Peter had a topic sentence written and that was all. Smacking Sirius's hand away from the pages, I flipped them back to the proper page.

"There you go." I said as if I were talking to a toddler which I may as well have been.

Taking no notice to my rude tone, Sirius said "Thanks!" and went back to work with James quickly looking over at Sirius's book for the proper page and setting off to work as well. Peter caught on a few minutes later than the other two but found the page and began writing too.

After another hour of waiting for James and Sirius to finish we were all finally done. Sighing with relief we headed up to our beds and put our books away. We thought about wandering about the castle, but it was past curfew.

"Ah no need to worry!" James said excitedly. We all looked at him, confused.

"I got an Invisibility Cloak! It makes whatever's under it invisible!" He exclaimed excitedly.

Without a response, he ran upstairs and rummaged through his trunk. He appeared a few moments later waving a cloak in the air wildly.

"That's wonderful, really, but how are six people supposed to fit under that?" Remus pointed out.

"You really like to be a pessimist don't you Mooney?" stated James. Remus just chuckled and shrugged.

"I'm tired so I think I'll pass, but I plan on using that cloak sometimes soon." I warned James, pointing at him.

"Yeah sure." He said and I went upstairs and quietly changed, seeing as the rest of our roommates were already asleep.

I had just gotten comfortable in my bed when Lily cam upstairs.

"Did all four of them fit under it?" I asked, surprised.

"No, not at all. Remus decided to go to bed. But with Peter under their, it's a bit of a squeeze." We both chuckled quietly. Lily then got ready for bed and we fell asleep without another word.

It was Saturday and I woke up to the sound of Lily shouting my name. I groaned and rolled over. She kept shouting and proceeded to shake me. I pulled my pillow so that it was covering my head. Apparently she'd had enough because she ripped the pillow off my head and yanked the blankets off me.

I glared at her, shivering now. "What!?" I demanded.

"Breakfast." She said cheerily as she skipped off downstairs.

Angry, I got dressed and headed downstairs, deliberately passing by Lily without saying anything. She laughed and followed behind me to the Great Hall. Breakfast had already started and we found the guys with two empty seats next to them.

The meal was delicious. I helped myself to toast, sausages, eggs, and porridge and washed it all down with pumpkin juice. The food here was always so good that even the tiniest person would easily go back for seconds.

Everyone was stuffed and we spent the day doing absolutely nothing. James hit on Lily, Lily got mad. Sirius and James practiced Quidditch with Peter looking on in awe at them and Remus sat under a tree reading a book. Lily and I were sitting in the sun talking. Everyone was having a good time when Snape walked by.

James and Sirius immediately jumped off their brooms and ran up to him. I nudged Lily and got up and ran over to them. I was about to say something when Snape's glare stopped me. James and Sirius shouted a spell that they shouldn't have known this young, but we'd all been practicing spells for the older grades and had been getting pretty good.

Snape didn't look confused or surprised whatsoever. He tried to pull his wand out of the pockets in his robe but, when turned upside down, his wand had fallen out of his pocket and tumbled to the floor. Pettigrew had then taken the opportunity to grab Snape's wand.

I could see a spell forming in their mind but I wasn't about to let Snape be humiliated, no matter how much of a jerk he was. I took out my wand, pointed it at Snape, and shouted the spell that would let him down. He fell to the ground and I snagged his wand from Pettigrew. With that I turned my back and walked away from them. With his wand, he at least had a chance and I wasn't about to take his crap about not needing my help.

And so my good deed of the day had been done.

The rest of the Saturday went by pretty smoothly. Sirius and James saw Snape again but I pretended to not be paying attention and kept on walking. If Snape was going to be such a brat about me helping him, then I thought I'd let him have it once. But only once. The guilt I felt afterwards was terrible and I knew I would never be able to stand by again. I just hoped they hadn't been too bad to him…


	5. Chapter 5

It was now Monday and classes had started again. Snape had been especially rude in Potions for no apparent reason. Except maybe the fact that I'd let him get bullied by Sirius and James…but he had deserved it! At least that's that I tried to convince myself. It wasn't working very well.

I didn't let it bother me and had fun in my other class. Until Charms came, I figured I would avoid Snape at all costs, that way he had no reason to be mean or rude or glare or anything. But as soon as I answered a question he snorted. Even though I'd been right! I let it slide and went on with the class.

Soon, it was time to practice a new charm. Everyone was practicing on each other. My partner was Peter and I may as well been partnered with a desk. He couldn't even say the charm right. I was getting annoyed at this and on top of that Snape "accidentally" bumped into me on his way over to his partner. I looked at him waiting for an apology but none came. He simply glared back at me.

"Um, excuse me?" I said angrily. He snorted and walked away. But that was it.

"Engorgio!" I shouted and pointed my wand at his head. He turned around and the spell hit him square on the nose.

His nose began to grow uncontrollably and the Professor strode over to us quickly.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor!" He shouted.

I was a bit ashamed at myself but at the same time glad that I'd done something to stand up for myself. I was never one to let someone push me around. Sirius and James were literally on the floor laughing. James was holding his stomach while Sirius pounded the floor with his fists. Snape had been sent to the nurse's to get his nose back to the right size and I had been forced to sit out for the rest of class.

Snape, however, made it back to class before it was over and was told to sit down as well. After class was dismissed, Snape and I were told to stay behind. We glared at each other as the rest of our peers exited the room.

"Nice nose Snivevellus." James said and him and Sirius burst out laughing as they walked out.

"Good luck Sandy." Peter said smiling hugely and practically running out of the room. This made me stop glaring and look disgustedly at the door after him _Ewwww, gross!_ I though.

Snape chuckled and I immediately started glaring at him again.

"You two," the Professor began, "will have a detention."

"I didn't do anything, sir!" Snape protested.

"I don't want to hear it. Miss Melvorn has never exploded like that so you must have done something. You two will be spending the next two days in detention. One with me and the other in the Forbidden Forest. You may leave."

Leaving, I glared at Snape and muttered, "Thanks a lot."

"It's _your _fault, not mine!" He exclaimed. It was my turn to snort.

"How'd it go?" Remus asked as I entered the Great Hall a few minutes later for supper.

"Fantastic." I said sarcastically. "Snape and I have two detentions together. One with Professor Charms and one in the Forbidden Forest."

"It could be worse." He tried to comfort me. I smiled weakly at him.

"Sorry about the points by the way." I said to the group in general.

"No don't be." Sirius said, chuckling.

"Yeah, it was totally worth it!" said James.

"Ugh. I don't see how you can hate him so much when you've never even spoken to him before." Lily argued.

"We don't _have_ to speak with him to know he's a git." James argued back.

"Well maybe if everyone wasn't so mean to him, he wouldn't be so mean to everyone!"

"She's got a point." I said.

"Come on, Evans. I'd never be mean to you." James said flirtatiously. Lily looked about to burst.

"Whoa Evans. You're very attractive when you're angry. I like it." James said, flashing a huge grin. Lily just looked away from him and shook her head. I hid my amusement by being overly interested in my supper.

Supper ended and we headed to our common room to get started on our dream logs that had to have a nightly log. We, of course, just made it all and would, every once in a while, use the 'no dream' excuse. By the time we headed off to bed, we had finished enough dream logs to last until Christmas.

So I went to bed that night thinking of all the _fun_ I was going to have locked in a room with Snape for a few hours the next day. What a joy that was going to be. _At least he's not bad looking,_ my mind though. _I_ most certainly did not think that! _What is wrong with you Sandy! This is Snape! Severus Snape! The rude and arrogant Slytherin! _I was weirded out by my thoughts of Snape and before I fell asleep I couldn't help _and the good-looking Slytherin_ from popping into my mind.

I was thankful no one could read my thoughts. Especially Sirius and James. And _especially_ Severus Snape. That would be a tough one to explain.

Today was the day of my first detention. This one was in the classroom which I was thankful for. After classes and supper, I relished the few hours of freedom I had before my detention. Detentions were usually on Saturday's but the Charms Professor liked to do things a tad differently, I supposed. Differently as in worse and more stressful.

My friends wished me luck; Peter attempted to give me a 'good-luck hug' but I managed to duck out of it and out of the portrait hole before he had a chance. It took me a few minutes to get to the Charms room but, luckily for me, I walked in at 7:59 and the detention started at 8:00 p.m sharp.

"Ah Miss Melvorn, good to see you." Professor Clarmus (_made up name_) greeted me as I walked into the room.

"Pleasure's all mine" I smiled a fake smile and he laughed a little. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I'd anticipated.

"It's 8:01. Mister Snape is late." Professor Clarmus stated.

"I don't have to stay late because of him do I?" I asked, worried.

But before he could answer Snape walked into the room. I stood there with my arms crossed, glaring at him.

"And why are you late Mister Snape?" asked the Professor.

Snape just shrugged.

"Well, you can stay late then tonight. You two can get started by re-organizing all the books alphabetically. By author." He gestured to a shelf on his left. Thankfully it only had 4 shelves; but the shelves were about six feet in length. Each.

"This'll take at least two hours!" I complained aloud.

"Best get started then." Snape's voice, for once, lacked the bitterness and anger it usually held. I looked at him, surprised for a moment before getting to work.

We'd finished organizing the first shelf in silence. Professor Clarmus was marking papers at his desk and not paying much attention to us. I decided to break the silence.

"Look." I said. Snape looked at me. "I don't understand why you hate me. I stick up for you and you get mad. Then when I don't do anything, you get even madder! Is there else I've done to upset you that I'm unaware of or something because I really can't recall ever being that mean to you." All this came out in a rush and I inhaled deeply when I was finished.

Snape just stared at me. I started to feel a little awkward but stared back nonetheless. It was in doing so that I realized how intense and beautiful his were. Before I could notice anything more about them, however, Snape had started talking.

"Yo…You don't need…to be…sorry." He stammered rather uncomfortably. I wasn't sure if he was going to say more so I stayed silent. We had already started working again before he said anything else.

"I know you just wanted to…help. I'm not…mad or anything." He sounded very awkward. I couldn't help but smile.

I did not, however, realize that I'd stopped working as I smiled at him. I also hadn't realized that I pretty much stared at him as I smiled. A few moments later, when I realized what I was doing, I immediately stopped staring at got back to work. The rest of the detention went by silently, neither of us saying a word except for an abrupt 'see you' before we headed off to our common rooms.

Arriving back in the Gryffindor common room, only a few people lingered about. Remus was in one of the armchairs with a book and Lily was sprawled on the couch. They both looked up at me as I entered through the portrait hole.

"Hey," Remus smile, "how was it."

"Not bad actually. No one said much but he did give what I'm guessing is the closest thing to an apology I will ever receive from him."

"Well that's good." said Remus. "I was worried you'd come back with a third arm or something."

I laughed. "None that I know of!" I said, spinning around so he could see that I was completely normal.

"Oh wait, I think I see something coming out of your back." He said, pointing.

"Oh Ha Ha."

"No really. Lily, come and look at this!"

Lily rushed over and her and Remus stared at my back. I hadn't believed Remus one bit but the look on Lily's face was making me a little worried. It was a mix between worry and amazement.

"I've never seen anything like it before…"she mumbled.

I freaked out and started grabbing at my back frantically, only to hear Lily and Remus break out into a fit of laughter.

"Not cool. Not cool at all." I said, but I involuntarily let a little laugh slip out.

A few minute later I wished Remus a good night's sleep and headed off to bed with Lily. We slipped under our covers and a few minutes later I decided that I had something to tell her. Something that I felt was important, and something I knew she'd never tell anyone. No one.

"Lily?" I asked.

"Yeah?" She said, yawning.

"I know you're tired but I've gotten something to tell you. And it's kind of a big deal."

"What? What is it!?" She shot up in her bed and stared at me intently.

"I…I think I like Severus."

Lily's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to speak but I quickly shook my head.

"Tomorrow." I said. I was too tired to answer any questions right now so they'd have to wait until morning. As I laid down to go to sleep I could practically feel her eyes burning with questions waiting to be answered and her mind buzzing with confusion. _When did you start liking him? Does he like you? Are you going to start talking to him? Is he going to start being nice to you? _were some of the questions I knew I'd be answering tomorrow.

I fell asleep thinking of the answers to the upcoming bombardment of questions…. And of Severus. _When did I start calling him _Severs_?_ I asked myself before drifting off to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Severus looked down at me and I stared up at him.

"What are you doing down here?" He asked, with only a hint of bitterness in his voice.

"I don't know, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and ended up here. Is there a problem with that?" I might like the guy but I wasn't going to take any crap from him.

"I never hinted that there was." He stated, a little calmer.

"Oh. Good." I said. "Well I can sense that I'm not wanted in this 'territory' so I think I'll be off." I stated.

Severus looked confused. "I never said that either." He said irritably.

"Yeah but a Gryffindor near the Slytherin common room? I think I'd rather be able to get to classes in one piece tomorrow, thanks."

"True." He said, a little more calm again.

"So I'll see you in detention then." I said, feeling more confident then I thought I would have.

"We have two classes together." He informed me discreetly.

"Oh yeah. Then I will see you tomorrow." I gave him a small wave and turned to leave.

His next words surprised me beyond belief.

"And I'll beat you at Potions tomorrow." I turned and stared at his back as he walked away. Was that a hint of _niceness_ I heard in his voice!? Snapping out of it, I smiled to myself as I walked back to the Gryffindor common room. I was very happy as I walked through the portrait hole.

"Why so happy?" asked Sirius as I walked in. James and Pettigrew looked at me to see what Sirius was talking about.

"I'm just so happy to see Sirius Black." I said good-naturedly.

This took Sirius off guard but he recovered quickly. "I have that affect on women." He shrugged and smirked and I rolled my eyes as I sat in the chair opposite the couch they were all sitting on.

"Lily and Remus not back yet?" I ask.

"It's been like 20 minutes. Of course they're not back." James said. I smiled.

"Maybe if you gave a book a chance you'd realize they're great. I bet Lily would love a guy that reads. You better watch out or she'll start to fancy Remus; they're very much alike you know." I teased him.

James looked worried and I laughed at him. He really did like Lily and I thought that he meant well. I wished Lily would give him a chance but the one time I brought it up she threatened to hex me and after that I dropped it. Being her best friend, I could tell she was getting a fraction of a percent nicer to him every year and knew that someday she'd give him a chance. Someday.

_Maybe if I start dating Severus, she'll realize that she likes James I thought. And there my mind went thinking about Severus again. I really had to stop that. It better not get in the way of my high grades; I was determined to get the best grades possible all seven of my years at this school. And there was no way I was going to let a crush get in the way of that._

_A crush? You know it's more than that. My mind told me. I knew it was true. My own mind wouldn't lie to me. I trusted it very very much._

"I'm going to go do something useful and check out a book." I told Sirius and James…and Pettigrew too but only because he was there.

I got up and headed to the library. There was a faint hope in my mind that I'd see Severus but I didn't dwell on it. Only a few minutes ago he was down in the dungeons, why would he be up here in the library now?

I smiled at the librarian as I walked in and she smiled back at me. I was a frequent visitor to the library and always respected the rules of it. I didn't respect many rules in this school, and how could I with friends like Sirius and James?, but I did respect the library. The librarian loved me, and Lily and Remus, for doing so and therefore gave us access to the Restricted Section if we wanted it for a report or essay or something. Oh the rewards of being nice.

I found Lily and Remus sitting at a table, each with a book, and sat down with them. They both greeted me with smiles and waves and went back to their books. Lily was reading a book on the history of Hogwarts while Remus was reading a thick volume about werewolves. We all knew about his being a werewolf and took him to the Shrieking Shack every month when he transformed. We were all, except Lily, Animagus's so it made it easier to control him.

The moon was coming up in a few days, Friday to be exact, which was good because it meant Remus wouldn't have to miss a day of school the next day. My heart went out to Remus. He hated becoming a werewolf and was constantly looking for spells or potions to control him better during the full moon. He'd been unsuccessful so far and I felt terrible for him.

I touched him on the shoulder and he gave me an understanding smile.

I got up and looked through the section of the library on magical creatures. I found a book on dragons and sat down to read it with Lily and Remus.

We'd been reading for an hour or so when we decided to leave. We signed out our books and brought them back to the dormitory where James was playing with a small golden Snitch he'd stolen with Pettigrew looking at him with adoration in his tiny eyes and Sirius trying to catch it before James could. Ignoring them we put our books in our dormitories.

"So what did you do when we left?" Lily asked, with no hint about Severus in her voice, just curiosity.

"I just went for a walk then came back here." I shrugged.

"Sounds fun." She said as we headed downstairs again.

I hadn't told Lily about meeting Severus. I knew she'd be happy for me and everything but I'd just had enough of her excited squealing for one day. If I heard it again today, my ears would be ringing for a week.

We talked, had lunch, pulled some pranks, had supper, talked then headed off to bed. A usual day for us and it would never get old. Lily and I went to bed and one small memory from today flashed through my mind before I fell asleep. _"We have two classes together." "Oh yeah. Then I will see you tomorrow."_


	7. Chapter 7

* * *

It was Monday and I couldn't wait to see Severus. Potions was first so I got to see him straight away, which made me happy. I got out of bed and yanked Lily's covers off of her on my way to the girl's bathroom. She yelped a little and followed me a few moments later; I didn't wait for her.

Ready, we went downstairs into the common room to see it buzzing with students. They were trying to finish homework forgotten about, asking everyone and anyone for answers. I was approached multiple times but hedged the questions; I just wanted to get to Potions.

I was excited about Potions on a bad day, but now I was ecstatic. I hurried down the hall, robe billowing, with Lily behind me complaining.

"Slow down! He'll still be there you know!" She yelled. I stopped long enough to give her a warning stare and sped up again.

We reached the Potions class before most people, well before everyone actually. Breakfast had ended 10 minutes ago but most people would be headed to their common rooms to get their books and then head to class. We had brought our books _to_ breakfast.

"Oh bullocks!" Lily huffed. "I brought my Care Of Magical Creatures instead! That's what you get for rushing me! I want to hear everything, _everything._ Got it?"

"Wait, no don't go!" I started but she'd already rushed off.

I didn't want to wait alone! It would make it obvious because I was never at class early; late sometimes but never early! _Stupid Lily!_ I thought angrily. But my attentions were taken elsewhere when I noticed someone slowly approaching.

I could never mistake that tall, lean figure for anyone but Severus Snape. He was walking this way. He was early too! This realization made me happy, why would he be early when he usually gets to class at the same time as me or a little earlier?

"What are you doing here so early?" Severus asked, surprising me out of my thoughts. His voice wasn't pleasant but it wasn't bitter and hateful either.

"I could ask you the same thing." I retorted.

"Yeah," was all he said. _This is awkward_ I thought. Oh great.

"Lily was hear with me but she brought her Care of Magical Creatures stuff and had to go get her Potions." I explained.

"The pride of Gryffindor, she is." He snorted.

"Hey! She's my best friend so don't even start-!" I began defending her but Severus shook his head.

"Sarcasm," he informed me.

"Oh…sorry then." I smiled a little and the tiniest hint of one could be seen hinting at the edges of his mouth.

"Don't be," he said and it was the happiest I'd ever heard him. Then Professor Vera opened the classroom door and let us in.

"Good morning Mister Snape, Miss Melvorn. Glad to see you're so eager to start Potions." The Professor was clearly confused as to why students were there so early and Severus and I shared an amused glance and headed to our seats.

I let Severus walk in ahead of me and as he did his shoulder brushed against mine. Not in the mean way like that one day in Charms, but in a nice way, like he _wanted_ to.

I was fixed to my spot for a few seconds until the arrival of Lily snapped me out of it. She tapped me on the shoulder and walked in. We took our seats at the back of the class and as people started to enter, she looked at me expectantly.

"So…?" she asked.

"So what?"

"Don't play stupid with me!" She scorned. I chuckled.

"He just asked what I was doing here so early and I told him about you forgetting your books." I left out stuff again.

"Oh." She sounded disappointed but didn't have time to say anything else because class had started.

Potions went by quickly, we were instructed to make a potion and the Professor would grant 10 points to the student whose potion was the best. Concentrating hard, I made the Potion and was extremely happy with my results as I handed in a vial of it to the Professor.

The rest of the class was spent doing bookwork while Professor Vera marked everyone's potion. It wasn't until a few minutes before the end of class that we got our results.

"Well, it seems we have a tie. A four-way tie." Professor Vera stated.

"Severus Snape, Sandy Melvorn, Lily Evans, and Remus Lupin, in no particular order." He stated. Gryffindor cheered louder than the Slytherins.

"Now, Mister Snape's potion was at a quality equal to mine and for that I will award him 20 points. Miss Melvorn's, Miss Evans's, and Mister Lupin's potions were all far above their grade level, but not as skilled as Snape's and for that I award them each 5 points." He went on. Slytherin cheered louder than the Gryffindors.

"Congratulations," I mumbled to Severus as we exited the class. A smug smirk appeared on his face.

"You too." He said before walking away.

* * *

**Hey guys please tell me what you think. I am sorry it took me so long to post another one. I was at a friends party and one of my best friends got hurt and couldn't remember anything so i am like really shaken up. I also can't see the screen that well through my tears so its hard to type. But i'll do it anyways because it gets my mind away from what happend. Please review please tell me what you think about the story.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Charms that day went by unexcitingly. Gryffindor way out-performed the Slytherins but there was no competition and therefore no points were awarded but Gryffindor still jeered at the Slytherins. I didn't say anything to Severus this time, and he didn't say anything to me.**

_**Am I just wasting my time? I wondered. Why do I even like him? He doesn't make any efforts to talk to me, he's not mean but he's not nice either. I don't know anymore…**_

**Severus didn't talk to me for the rest of the day no matter how much I wanted him to. I did, however, catch him staring at me during lunch. **_**Ugh**_** I thought. **_**Make up your mind!**_** He stared like he liked me then never talked. It was like he's bipolar!**

"**Hey, you alright, mate?" James said that night in the common room.**

"**Hmm? Oh yeah, fine." I answered.**

"**I can cheer you up if you want." Sirius offered.**

"**Alright." I said, holding my laughter back once I saw his surprised face.**

"**What?" He asked, bewildered.**

"**Come on Padfoot, I could use a pick me up."**

"**Ummm…." he faltered.**

"**Moony? Prongs? How about you?" I asked, not even mentioning the now-disappointed Pettigrew.**

**I busted out laughing as all their faces got extremely surprised.**

"**I-I can cheer you up…" Pettigrew offered.**

**It was their turn to laugh. Sirius, James, and Moony busted out laughing uncontrollably. I, on the other hand, stopped laughing immediately.**

"**I was just kidding Petti-. Peter." I forced myself to call him by his first name.**

**His face fell as he said, "Oh."**

"**Come on Sandy, you really do look upset." James said, laughing.**

"**She does too. Doesn't she Moony?" This from Sirius.**

"**I hate to say it, Sandy but you definitely did." Even Remus was laughing and agreeing.**

"**Well I already to you all that I wasn't so that's that. Where's Lily?" I asked, changing the subject.**

"**She stormed out after Prongs here hit on her again," Remus explained, still chuckling.**

**I laughed a little. "What did you say this time?" I asked.**

"**Nothing! All I did was tell her that someday I would catch her like I catch the snitch! I don't see what's so bad about that." He defended himself.**

"**You compared her to a flying ball used in Quidditch. And using the word 'catch' probably wasn't that smart either." I told him.**

"**Well help me!" He ran at me and grabbed my shoulders. This scared me a little. "You know her better than anyone! You can help meeeee! Please?" He begged.**

"**I'm not some type of dating service now bugger off." I pushed his hands off me. But I smiled anyway.**

"**I know that! Please?"**

"**Fine. But not until after the full moon first. Got it?" I warned.**

"**Oh thanks mate! You're amazing!" He fussed, giving me a huge hug.**

"**Can't…breathe." I choked out.**

"**Oh, sorry." He let go. I laughed and went out to look for Lily.**

**I found her outside around the caretaker's hut. She was just pacing. I couldn't help but laugh at her. She saw me and shook her head and I knew she was referring to her conversation with James. I walked over to her and put an arm around her shoulder. Someday she'd get used to James…hopefully.**

"**Catch me like a snitch! Do you believe it!?" She fumed.**

**It was hard not to laugh but I managed it. "I know, they told me. But look, he asked me for help on what to say to you and stuff so I'll make sure he behaves."**

"**You WHAT!?" She yelled. She swung at me and I ducked laughing.**

"**Lily, Lily!" I yelled. "It's not even going to last! It's James we're talking about here! Nothing sticks in his mind except for Quidditch and Defense Against the Dark Arts. And you." I said the last part for a laugh. It worked. Lily's expression got angry and I put my hands up defensively letting her know I was just fooling.**

"**You better get him to leave me alone or I'll go crazy!"**

"**Oh, he's not that bad. I think you should just give him a chance. You and I both know he's good-looking **_**and**_** he's funny **_**and**_** you already know he likes you."**

"**I don't care! He's obnoxious and self centered! And he's a git!"**

"**Wow, you treat him like he treats Severus."**

"**I do not!" She said defensively, but my plan worked. Her mind got off the subject of James. "Speaking of Severus, anything I ought to know?" **

"**Just that his bipolar-ness is driving me insane! I catch him staring but he acts like I'm not even alive when he sees me in the halls!"**

"**Well, what else can he do? Sirius and James would never leave him alone if he tried to talk to you with them around and they're usually around." Lily offered.**

"…**True." I agreed.**

"**Just give him some time. You're irresistible, he'll turn around." She smiled and I laughed.**

"**I am, aren't I?" I said jokingly. Lily nodded and we headed back inside.**


	9. Chapter 9

Over the next few days I forced myself to leave Severus Snape alone. I kept my glances to a minimum and didn't talk to him before or after classes. He, on the other hand, stared at me more than usual, a lot more. In class, when I walked by, and at lunch. Even the guys noticed.

"Don't look now, Sandy, but Snivellus is staring at you." James would say during class.

"Hey Snivellus! Got a thing for Sandy or something? We all see you staring!" Sirius would yell at him outside.

But Severus would just keep walking, paying them no mind and Lily and I would defend him when they tried to go after him.

"Maybe Sandy likes him too!" They'd say to me. I always just snorted.

Friday came, and with it the full moon. We all looked at each other frequently during the day, knowing what would be happening that night. We had the map Dumbledore had given us; he knew about Remus's 'condition' as we called it. He's the on that found us the Shrieking Shack.

Classes ended, we ate supper, and prepared to go to the Shack.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." James whispered to the map and it unfolded into a huge map of Hogwarts and everyone in it; showing where they were and what they were doing.

We took one of the many secret passages out of the school and headed to the Shrieking Shack, keeping an eye on the sky the whole time. Lily was back in the common room; she was the only one of us that wasn't an Animagus. I was one by birth and James, Sirius, and Pettigrew had taught themselves how to do it. Well James and Sirius taught themselves how, Pettigrew was taught by them.

James transformed into his buck, Sirius into his dog, and Pettigrew into his rat as we reached the Whomping Willow. I took out my wand and muttered the spell that would freeze the Willow for a while so we could get into the underground passage that lead directly to the Shrieking Shack.

The three that transformed into animals went first and I brought up the rear with Remus. His head was hanging and he looked so upset. It was like this every time. I put my hand on his shoulder and he seemed to snap out of some sort of trance as he looked back at me.

"It's not your fault." I told him.

He smiled weakly. "I know." And he kept walking.

Once inside the Shrieking Shack, I headed to the top to check the sky. The moon was appearing. There was only a few minutes left.

"A few minutes to go." I declared as I came downstairs.

As if on cue, Remus began to moan n pain, steadily escalating to yells. He doubled over in pain and then snapped backwards, snapping his back. He yelled again and again as his hands and feet grew and his nose elongated into a muzzle. Fur sprouted from his back and his clothes ripped. He grew claws and long, sharp teeth. He was a werewolf now.

He growled and looked around wildly at the three animals and one human around him. Quickly, I transformed into my animal form; a lioness. Remus growled at me and I sat down calmly in front of him. Sirius and James came to either side of me and Pettigrew squeaked from on top of James's head.

Remus snarled and charged. Prongs knocked him backwards with his huge set of antlers and Padfoot growled, baring his fangs. Remus hit the back wall and got up shaking his head from side to side. Pettigrew, unnecessarily, bit Remu's leg and Remus growled at him. I ran up and swatted Pettigrew off, pinning him to the ground and biting the air in front of his face to say "Don't ever do that again!"

Remus attacked again and again and each of us took quite a beating. Pettigrew least of all because he seemed to sit in the corner and not do much. I don't even know why he came; what could a rat do against a werewolf!? Nothing.

Remus swatted at me and I swatted back, claws unsheathed. I left a mark on his face and he yelped in pain and turned to the next animal; Padfoot. He charged at Padfoot but he bit Remus and Remus backed off.

This went on for hours until the moon started to set. Remus began to change back and I dragged a robe towards him with my teeth as I was still a lioness. He wrapped it around himself and stayed lying down. I quickly licked the blood from my wounds so Remus would feel less bad. I looked at the rest of them, instructing them to do the same.

Finished, I changed back into a human. Walking over to Remus, I tapped his arm.

"Remus? Are you ready to go back now or do you want to wait?" I asked quietly.

Without looking at any of us, Remus started to walk back the way we came. He could joke about this freely but when the time came, he hated himself. It saddened me. I followed him out, flinching at a rather deep gash on my calf from a bite.

Making our way back to the dormitory, I cleaned myself up and went to bed. Lily was still awake but there was nothing to tell her since she knew what happened there every month.

The next morning, I stretched and winced at my leg. Lily came out of the bathroom and looked concerned.

"You should get that checked," she said, knowing I wouldn't.

"And how would I explain a bite mark like this?" I asked her sarcastically. We didn't know why we never got turned into werewolves ourselves but decided it best not to question it.

We went downstairs and I smiled at Remus to let him know it was ok. I took a step and winced slightly and his eyes flickered to my leg.

"It's nothing." I assured him.

Nonetheless, he was lifting my pajama pant leg up and looking at the damage. He looked back up at me with a thousand apologies in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Sandy, truly sorry."

"Shut up Moony." I said, shaking my leg so my pant leg fell back to the floor.

"You should get that checked." He told me. I shook my head.

"Maybe you and Remus should get together, not James," I whispered to Lily. They were exactly the same. Lily shook her head once. Remus and her were friends, nothing more.

"Ugh, detention tonight." I mumbled, plopping into the comfy arm chair. I was a little excited about it, but, for once, didn't get my hopes up.

"Just be positive. It's the last one." Remus said. He was right; but instead of being happy about it, it saddened me.

"You're in the Forest tonight right?"

I scowled and nodded. "Then when no one's looking, just give Snivellus a good hex. Like in Charms!" Sirius said, laughing at the memory.

"No thanks, I'm not you." I told him.

"But you wish you were." He said smugly.

"Hmm. I like being a girl actually, thanks." I said and smiled. He laughed again.

"Well let's go! I've only got like 12 hours before my detention and I want to live it up before then! Plus, it's breakfast and I'm _starving_!" I said enthusiastically.

"So, am I!" said Remus and we all laughed.


	10. Chapter 10

My free hours were spent at various places. The library with Lily and Remus, the Quidditch pitch with all of them, the common room with all of them, the Great Hall with all of them, and the Halls with everyone except for Pettigrew who we led on a wild goose chase about the castle. He was looking for a supposed 'new' student that had been leaving him secret messages with us.

"I can't find her! She doesn't go here!" He wailed sadly as we all entered the common room at 7:45 pm.

"That's because we gave you a fake name." James said, patting him on the shoulder and we all laughed.

Sirius's eyes were glowing with mischief and I didn't trust him.

"But there is someone. It's Sandy." He said, eyes shining happily.

"WHAT?" I yelled as Pettigrew's face lit up and he smiled. "Look, Peter, Sirius is lying. We're friends and that's it."

"Come on Sandy, you can admit it now. The jig is up." Sirius continued, trying hard to keep a straight face. No one else was succeeding.

"Ha Ha Sirius you git, bugger off! Peter, we're just friends and that's all we'll ever be sorry."

_Not even that I thought in my head. Pettigrew looked like he was believing Sirius more than me. He was smiling and staring at me. He got up and started to walking towards me, I started backing away and luckily bumped into a grandfather clock and saw that it was 7:50 pm._

"Oh, look at the time! I'm late. Bullocks!" I said loudly, actually serious about the last part of my comment.

"Good luck!" I heard Lily and Remus yell and through their laughter, James and Sirius agreed. Pettigrew just stared at me as I rushed out the portrait hole. I yelled my thanks back at them as I sped walk.

"Ugh, I feel so _dirty_." I said to myself, rubbing my arms.

I reached the Gamekeeper's hut at 8:01. The Gamekeeper, Ogg, and I were friends, so I didn't think he'd mind. Luckily, he didn't.

"Sorry I'm late, Ogg! I had some…boy trouble." I thought I saw Severus's flash with anger at that.

"That's alright Sandy, I won't say anything." He smiled, smiling hugely.

"Thanks. I can see why Molly likes you so much." I said. Molly Weasley always spoke highly of Ogg. "So what are we doing tonight?" I asked, seeing Severus was already there. He was staring at me but I was doing my best not to stare back.

"Going into the Forest, of course!" Ogg said happily, he loved the Forbidden Forest.

"Oh joy." I said sarcastically.

"Ah, don't worry, it'll be fine."

With that we headed out into the Forest. Ogg had his dog with him and his wand, which wasn't unusual. He was ahead of me and Severus, who were walking side by side together. No one was speaking.

"So why were you late?" Severus asked quietly and hesitantly.

"Boy trouble." I repeated myself.

"What's _boy trouble_? That doesn't answer the question, it could be a number of things." Severus almost sounded angry.

"Well sor-ry. Pettigrew was being, well…Pettigrew."

"Pettigrew?"

"Yeah, Peter Pettigrew. Looks like a rat?" I elaborated.

"Yeah I know who he is. What kind of trouble is he giving you?" Severus sounded a little angry.

"I thank you for caring, but it's no big deal." I said, wondering why he was getting angry.

"What's he doing?" Severus sounded a little more angry.

"Nothing! He's been like that for the entire time I've known him, Sirius just gave him false information that I'd been giving the guys secret messages to give to him. Which I haven't. I hate the little rat." I explained.

Severus's eyes flashed and he looked forward, not looking at me.

"Uh, Severus?" I asked. His head snapped in my direction. I flinched. "Can I ask what's wrong?"

"You're right, he is a little rat and he needs to be taught a lesson." He snarled; I'd never heard him like that before.

"Whoa, I hate him too but I don't think you need to hex him or anything…" I said, a little nervous.

"If he _ever_ does anything again, I want to know. Got it?" He demanded.

My eyes shot open immediately. Severus could not have sounded more boyfriend-like if he'd tried right then.

"What are you?" I said, not knowing where the courage came from. "My boyfriend?"

Severus and I had been whispering so as not to disturb Ogg and he was pretty far ahead of us by now. I stopped when I said that and so did Severus. His eyes bore into mine and he didn't flinch away from staring at me.

"Yes…?" I asked him, swallowing hard.

He stared down at me for a few seconds before answering me. "I don't like Pettigrew. Any excuse to get that git is welcome." He turned away from me and started walking again. I sighed.


	11. Chapter 11

**We had made it into the Forbidden Forest and stopped just inside of it to hear what we were going to do.**

"**There's a plant in here the Potions Master has asked us to gather for him. It's rather deep in the Forest so stay close." And with that he headed into the Forest.**

"**What's he looking for?" Severus asked. It was apparent to everyone that Severus loved Potions; and he was brilliant at it.**

**Ogg named something I'd never heard of but Severus had. I made a mental note of it so I could research it when we got back to the castle.**

"**I know what it looks like." Severus stated.**

"**Yeah, he gave his last stalk of it so I'd know what to find." Ogg rifled through his pockets and pulled out a fat, medium-length, white stalk.**

"**Stands out a bit…" I said quietly.**

"**Well if you know what to look for, Snape you can take Sandy to find some. She's smart enough to protect all of us." Ogg smiled at me and I blushed a little. "You've both got your wands and if anything happens, send up green sparks. There's a clump about 5 yards that way." He pointed with the stalk to the right.**

"**See you in a bit!" I called to him as he headed off in the opposite direction.**

"_**Lumos!"**_** I muttered, lighting my wand. Ogg had taken the lantern with him so we were light-less. Severus did the same.**

**We walked in silence to the clump and picked as many stalks as we could. I held out the container for him to place them in and stuck it in the backpack I had with me. We turned around to leave when out of nowhere a centaur came charging at us.**

**I pulled my wand out and prepared to yell a stunning spell but I paused for a single second as I stepped on a rock and last night's wound stung like crazy. In my split second pause, I was knocked to the ground by the oncoming centaur. The centaur was coming back and I was searching through the grass to find my wand. It reared up over me and I looked up in horror to see it's hooves flailing over me.**

**I was wondering where the heck Severus was when someone was standing over me and shouting a spell at the centaur. It was Severus. **_**Took him long enough**_**! I thought, but really I was happy to be alive.**

**The centaur ran off and I started to get up when Severus's hand appeared in front of my face. Surprised, I took it and let him help me up.**

"**Thanks." I muttered, brushing myself off. I looked around for my wand and Severus handed it to me.**

"**You should really get that checked." He pointed to my leg where I could blood was starting to chow through my jeans.**

**We walked by for a bit in silence until I spoke.**

"**You saved my life back there you know." I told him as I sort of limped as I walked.**

"**No, you wouldn't have died. Maybe suffered from some brain damage and broken bones but nothing fatal." He said.**

"**Can't you just accept my thanks?" I asked, a little annoyed.**

"**I saved your life, I can do whatever I want." He snarled back.**

"**I wouldn't have died, remember!?" I shot back.**

"**I'd been being nice." He said calmly.**

"**Well maybe you should have let the centaur crush me then! One less nuisance you'd have to worry about!" I snarled.**

"**I don't want you dead." He looked at me.**

"**Well maybe you should have let it stomp on me so I would have suffered some brain damage and a few broken bones." I retorted, even though my stomach was all fluttery at his last comment.**

"**I don't want you hurt either." He said, still staring at me.**

"**Is that why you want to get Pettigrew?" It came out of my mouth before I could stop it and I clapped my hand over my mouth quickly.**

"**Yes." He said. I stopped in my tracks.**

"**What?" I said, eyes wide. Severus stopped walking and turned to look at me.**

"**Yes." He said again.**

"**You want to get Pettigrew…because he wants me?" I asked, amazed.**

"**Yes." He said again.**

"**What?" I asked again.**

"**Yes." He said for the fourth time.**

"**Another response would be lovely." I looked him in the eye.**

"**You're right." He said instead, staring into my eyes.**

"**That's better." I mumbled.**

**Severus stayed silent, but I didn't. "So…this changes things."**

"**Why?" He asked.**

"**Well I don't know. Do you…like…me…or, something?" I asked, sounding stupid.**

"**I thought that would have been evident in my previous statement." **

"**Well yeah but I was just making sure." I was absolutely stunned. I don't think a stunning spell could have stunned me more.**

**He didn't ask how I felt about him and I couldn't think of a good way to let him know how I did feel about him. So I didn't say anything and we walked back too where we had left Ogg. He was waiting for us with his dog and his lantern resting on the ground.**

"**What happened? I heard a spell go off?" Ogg asked, worried.**

"**We had a run in with a centaur." I explained.**

"**Is everyone alright?" Ogg asked, looking over us.**

"**Fine." Severus said.**

"**Lovely." I said.**

"**Good." Ogg sighed and led us out of the Forest.**


	12. Chapter 12

**We made it back to Ogg's hut and headed inside. It was almost 9:00 p.m.**

"**Now, if you wouldn't mind giving these to Professor Slughorn (**_**previously named Professor Vera), **_**that would be great. I expect that if you can take on a centaur, you can make it to the school safely." He smiled at us and I smiled back. Severus took the two containers full of the stalks we'd gathered and we headed out into the night and back to the castle.**

**We were almost at Professor Slughorn's office when I knew my time was almost up to tell Severus how I felt. He was about to knock on the door when I grabbed his arm and stopped him.**

"**Me too." I said.**

**Severus was confused. "What?" he asked.**

"**Me too, I feel the same. I like you!" I said, making sure he understood the first time in case I couldn't say it again.**

**Severus ignored me and knocked on the door. Professor Slughorn opened the door and thanked us greatly for the plants. Severs answered because I was too busy feeling rejected to say anything. Slughorn asked how the detention was and Severus answered, then said good night.**

"**Goodnight Miss Melvorn."**

"**Goodnight." I said, snapped out of my being miserable.**

**I was about to head in the opposite direction and up to the Gryffindor common room when someone, presumably Severus, grabbed my wrist. I turned and faced him.**

"**What?" I said, irritated. **_**Liar!**_** I thought angrily.**

"**Good." He said.**

"**What's good?" I asked, annoyed. I just wanted to get to my bed and sleep for 3 days.**

"**Good, you feel the same." He said. And, once again, I was stopped and stared at him.**

"**What?" I said stupidly. I shook my head.**

"**It's good that you feel the same way as I do." He elaborated.**

"**Yeah." Wow, was I ever being stupid right now. "Sorry." I apologized.**

"**Don't be." He said. **

"**So…What now?" I asked him; hopefully he knew because I didn't.**

"**See you Monday." He said and turned and walked to the dungeons and the Slytherin common room.**

**I stood there, staring after him for a few minutes before turning and walking back to the Gryffindor common room. It was close to 9:30 at night when I made it into through the portrait hole.**

**A bunch of people were up but I made my way to where my group of friends were.**

"**So how'd it go?" Remus asked.**

"**Great." I said truthfully. He laughed.**

"**Hey Sandy guess what!" James said excitedly.**

"**What?" I asked.**

"**You're free!" Sirius yelled. I laughed with everyone, in one of the best moods I'd been in since the beginning of school.**

**I headed up to my dormitory to clean up my leg. Lily had stayed downstairs so I was left to my own thoughts. I was so happy right now, I wasn't focused at all on the stinging in my leg. I washed it out with water and brought my pants with me, I'd gotten pj's on. I looked through some books to see if I could find a healing spell of sorts.**

**I found a certain spell, **_**Episky**_**, which was to clean thing up. I tried it out on my pants and the blood stain vanished. Smiling, I rolled up my pant leg and pointed my wand at my bite.**

"_**Episky!**_**" I said. I flinched at the slight pain I felt but watched in awe as my cut vanished. **_**Sweet **_**I thought.**

**I headed back downstairs, no hint of a limp in my walk anymore.**

"**Your leg seems better." Remus said, glad.**

"**It is!" I said, holding up my pant leg for them to see.**

**James and Sirius seemed stunned but Lily and Remus didn't seem surprised at all, they **_**did**_**, along with me, have the best marks in our year. Pettigrew, on the other hand, was staring at my leg like it was something to eat. I quickly dropped my pant leg.**

**Severus's warning popped into my mind. **_**"You want to get Pettigrew…because he wants me?" I asked, amazed. "Yes." He said again.**_** I smiled.**

"**Why are you so smiley all of a sudden?" Sirius asked.**

**I shrugged. "Happy to be free." I said simply.**

**Lily, however, had other ideas. After a few minutes of talking Lily made some excuse about having to go to lou and dragged me along. I heard James mutter something about wondering why girls go to the lou together as I was dragged along behind Lily. Once in the girls bathroom Lily stared at me expectantly. She didn't say anything, just waited.**

"**What!?" I asked, playing stupid.**

"**Why are you so happy? And don't give me that 'happy to be free' nonsense." Lily said, excited.**

"**Severus and I talked…" I said hesitantly.**

"**And…?" she prompted, smiling.**

"**He may have told me that he wanted to get Pettigrew because Pettigrew wants me and he may have saved my life…" I said, embarrassed.**

"**Did he really!? I knew he liked you, I **_**knew**_** it!" The excitement and happiness was evident in her voice.**

"**Yeah. And I may have told him I like him too." I added.**

**This made her even happier. "So are you guys dating now or what?"**

"**No no no," Lily's face fell a bit, "but I mean, this is Severus Snape we're talking about. I'm still amazed he likes me at all."**

"**True. He'll warm up soon enough and you guys will be great." Lily smiled at me.**

"**Are you kidding? No one can know. Especially not James and Sirius. They'd tear him to shreds for liking me and never talk to me again for liking him!" I said.**

"**Good point…oh this is a difficult one." Lily was clearly thinking of ways to help out the situation.**

"**No it isn't. Just don't say anything." I suggested.**

**Lily looked at me one last time before turning to leave. On her way out she said, "He's going to ask you out you know."**

"…**I hope so." I muttered to myself as I followed her out.**


	13. Chapter 13

Sunday was a great day. I was as happy as I had been on Saturday, especially during mealtimes. Nothing new and exciting happened, but the looks between Severus and I were different now. I knew it was because of yesterday's detention and I was happy about it. Extremely happy. But I had to be careful not to make it obvious since Sirius and James, and the entire Slytherin table, might see.

We spent the day sneaking out of the castle and into the cellar of Honeydukes. Sirius and James took a piece of candy here or there but Lily and I made sure they left their money at the desk. With bags of candy hidden in our cloaks, we snuck back into the common room and headed up to the guys dormitory. liquorice wand to celebrate Sandy's freedom!" James toasted and held up a liquorice wand.

Everyone took a liquorice wand out of their bags and held it in air.

"Cheers!' Sirius called and we clunked them together, laughing, each of us taking a huge bit from the candy wands.

That was, by far, the best weekend so far at Hogwarts this year.

It was now Monday and we were all heading down to breakfast together. Instinctively, I looked for Severus upon entering the Great Hall. He usually sat in the same spot everyday, the front, closest to the teacher's table. But he wasn't there.

_Odd, I thought, frowning a little but pushing the thought aside. I'd see him in Potions and Charms, and the other meals. I still couldn't completely stop wondering about where he was though. I made a plan to ask him later._

Breakfast was delicious, as always. Stomachs full, we headed off to Potions with Sirius, James, and Pettigrew complaining the whole way to the dungeons.

"Good evening class," Professor Slughorn greeted. "I trust everyone had a delightful weekend. Even those of you with detentions." He looked from me to Severus, who I'd seen outside the Potions room. We had shared a glance before entering.

Lily was part of this "Slug Club" thing Slughorn had come up with. Students with famous relatives and who were extraordinarily talented in academics or Quidditch were selected by Slughorn to join. Lily was a member, but not Remus or I for our academic achievements, nor James for his obvious Quidditch talent. He was, after all, the youngest Seeker to ever be on the team.

None of us thought anything of it, however, because Lily never stopped complaining about how boring it was.

"It's just a group of snobs bragging about themselves! It's a place for Sirius and James, is what it is." She complained. People were usually chosen in the senior grades but Lily had been chosen just this year. There was a formal meeting happening sometime soon and Lily had invited me as her guest. I agreed; only because she was my friend. And because I wanted to see peoples' faces when she showed up with me rather than a guy.

It was scheduled for this Friday evening. Lily and I had picked out our dresses to wear and James never topped nagging me to ditch Lily in the hopes that she'd invite him.

"Come on Sandy! You haven't helped me at all in getting her to like me! This is the least you could do!" He was right, I hadn't done anything to help him like I'd said I would.

"Alright, what do you want to know?" I asked him. I always stuck to my word.

He was shocked but recovered quickly. "What am I doing wrong?"

"Everything." I answered simply.

"_Everything?_" He asked, shocked.

"Pretty much. You're too much like Sirius." I said. "She's not going to agree because of your looks." He took that compliment to his head for a bit until he saw my face.

"Seriously James! But don't change, because she _does_ like you as a friend. Otherwise she wouldn't let you be around her."

"So I can't change, but I can't be me either." He said slowly, confusion etched in every line of his face.

"That doesn't help…" I said, realizing that my two statements had been exact opposites. "Forget about the Sirius thing; you're not really like him anyways. Just don't do anything. The only thing you can do is give her time. I mean, you're James Potter! You could get any girl you wanted, remember?" James and Sirius were the most wanted guys in Gryffindor. But girls had given up on James ever since it become school-wide information that James fancied Lily.

"True." He said, smiling smugly. I laughed.

"Now leave me alone so I can help Lily. She can't seem to find the right shoes." And with that I went back to our dormitory where Lily was rifling through her shoes, _again_.

"You know, looking through them over and over again isn't going to make new ones appear." I told her.

"I know that, but maybe there's a pair I've overlooked!"

"Here," I shoved my own pile of shoes towards her. "See what you can find in their."

"Sandy, we don't have the same sized feet." Lily said, looking at me like I was stupid.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm not stupid! Just charm them so they fit."

"Oh! Good idea!" She said happily, taking my shoes and rifling through them.

"Glad I could help." I smiled and began looking through the now mixed together pile of shoes for a pair for myself.

A few short minutes later, Lily and I had both settled on a pair of my shoes. All set for Slughorn's party on Friday, we headed downstairs to talk before we all headed off to bed.

Remus was helping the rest of the guys finish their homework and Lily and I took out our books and helped too. They were really lucky to have friends like the three of us. Remus helped Pettigrew, which left James and Sirius. Giving James a generous smile, I placed my books in front of Sirius. I felt Lily's eyes on me and I chuckled.

"Hey Evans, any day now." James teases.

"Do you want my help or not?" Lily snapped back at him.

"You know I do." James said and Lily glared at him for a second or two before placing her books in front of him.

After our homework was done and we had all said our goodnight's and see you in the morning's, we all headed to our beds. Laying in bed, I thought about mine and Severus's limited contact today.

We'd shared a glance at every meal and before our classes together, and they were fantastic, but now that our feelings were in the air, I wished we could actually _talk_. Yawning, I resolved to find a solution for that tomorrow and headed off to sleep, happy about everything.


	14. Chapter 14

"Did you hear!?" James said, running into Lily and I as we headed down the stairs the next morning.

"Hear what?" I asked.

"Wormtail had been wandering the corridors last night after Sirius and I had already come back and somebody hexed him!"

"What!?" Lily exclaimed incredulously.

"Yeah! They put a memory charm on him to so he doesn't remember who it was either!"

"But he will soon won't he?" Lily asked, concerned even though she disliked him as much as I did.

"Yeah, but not for a few days."

"What was the hex?" She asked.

"The bat-bogey hex. Bad one too." James whistled.

I had been silent the entire time. Lily and James looked at me. "What?" I asked, then I realized I'd been silent the entire time. "Is he alright?" I asked.

"Fine. He stayed in the infirmary last night because it was after curfew but he's fine now." I nodded when James was done speaking.

Heading down to breakfast, I thought. _Severus. _He'd said he wanted to get Pettigrew. I had been so caught up in all my happiness that I totally forgot about that. But then again, Pettigrew should consider himself lucky; Severus usually would have done _way_ more than that if it was James and Sirius.

I didn't feel particularly bad for Pettigrew but I never wished him any harm. And Severus was going to get in a lot of trouble once Pettigrew remembered. Nobody ever told the staff about the fights between James, Sirius, and Severus, but Pettigrew was sure to be asked who did it. And he'd tell too.

I was more determined now to talk to Severus. About where he was yesterday _and_ about Pettigrew.

"I forgot my books." I mumbled, realizing I actually didn't have it, and headed upstairs.

I didn't go to the common room, however. I paced in an upstairs corridor thinking about where Severus and I could talk. All of the sudden a door appeared in the wall. Surprised, I opened the door to find a room with chairs and couches and a chandelier. _A place to talk…_ I thought.

Amazed and excited I exited the room and the door vanished. Then I paced and thought again and, as I'd hoped, the door reappeared. I looked inside and there was that room again. Amazed and excited, I headed of to the common room, grabbed my books, and dashed to the Potions room. As I ran I hastily scribbled a message on a piece of parchment: Meet me in the upstairs corridor at 10 tonight.

Out of breath, I reached the Potions room early. Luckily, Severus was already there. Panting, I handed him the note just as the door was opened. Severus gave me a confused glace as he shoved the note in a pocket in his robes and entered the classroom behind me.

"Eager students! Just what I love to see!" Slughorn said happily as we sat down.

The classroom started to fill up soon after and I received confused glances from my friends.

"Where'd you go?" They asked.

"I had forgotten my books and went to get them. Then I ran here thinking I'd be late. Only Snape was here but Slughorn opened the door soon after." I explained. I was careful to call him Snape in front of them.

They had no choice but to believe me because I was telling the truth. Sure, I left some things out, but it was still the truth. Class started then, so no more could be said. The class went by as usual and so did the rest of the day. Except this time, I averted Severus's gaze because I knew it would be full of questions. Well one question. Why do I want to talk to him?

I was excited about my meeting with Severus tonight and hoped that this new room I'd discovered could be used to have more meetings with him. I wasn't nervous, I just hoped he wouldn't be get angry when I confronted him about the whole Pettigrew thing.

It was 9:00 and we were finishing up our homework. More dream logs, some Defence Against the Dark Arts, and some Care Of Magical Creatures. Easy stuff. We finished by 9:20.

I kept an eye on the clock as we talked and laughed. Pettigrew was with us and we pestered him with questions. Who did it? Do you remember anything yet? Where were you? Who found you? He wouldn't have been able to answer any of those questions this morning, but his memory was slowly coming back.

"I was on my way back here but I was still on the lower levels, I think. Professor Slughorn found me then brought me to the hospital wing. That's all I remember." He had said.

It was only a matter of time before Pettigrew remembered that it was Severus who hexed him. Why did Severus have to be so _stupid_? Nothing was gained, whatsoever, from hexing Pettigrew. He didn't know why he had been hexed and so wouldn't know to leave me alone! It was pointless. But Severus wouldn't get in that much trouble I reminded myself.

Roaming the halls after hours, hexing a student, altering a student's memory. You didn't get in that much trouble for that…did you? None of us have ever been stupid enough to do it. None of us has ever hated anyone enough to do it!

It was 9:52 when we started heading off to bed. We weren't really tired but figured we should get a good night's rest since tomorrow was bound to be an exciting day when Pettigrew's memory was restored. Lily and I headed up to and got changed into our pajamas. Getting into bed, we talked for a few minutes and my clock read 9:58.

I waited another few minutes for Lily's breathing to become slow and steady and she was sound asleep. Tip-toeing to my trunk, I put my clothes from today back on and headed out the portrait hole. It was 10:05 before I finally got into the hallway.

Racing to the corridor, I slowed when I saw Severus leaning against a wall. I had been going to ask James for his Invisibility Cloak but decided against it because of the questions it would bring up.

"Late for your own meeting." Severus greeted sarcastically.

"Yeah yeah yeah." I said as I began to pace.

"What are you doing?" He asked, clearly confused. I put my hand up in a shut-it gesture.

Sure enough, the door appeared just as it had before. I sighed a sigh of relief at the sight of it. I pushed open the heavy doors then waited as Severus walked in, not surprised one bit about a set of huge doors appearing on a blank wall out of nowhere.

"The Room Of Requirements." He said.

"What's that?" I asked, confused.

"A room in this castle that provides you with whatever you need. Most don't know it's here and if they do, they have no idea how to get into it." That was the most I'd ever heard him say at once. Perhaps this would be easier than I'd thought.

* * *

**Last one for the night. There will be more tommarow. Please read and review**


	15. Chapter 15

"**Yeah that's great. So. We need to talk." I stated obviously as I walked into the room and lounged in one of the huge red chairs. Noticing they were red, one of Gryffindor's colors, I smiled.**

"**About?" He asked, back to his usual self.**

"**First off, where were you yesterday morning. You weren't at breakfast." I started.**

"**I was at Potions." Definitely back to his usual self.**

"**You skipped breakfast…to wait at the Potions room?" I asked, surprised.**

"**I wasn't sure if we were going early again or not." He stated simply. Maybe not back to his usual self as much as I'd thought.**

"**Oh, well sorry about that then. I'll tell you or you tell me when that's supposed to happen. Besides, we can just come here." I gestured around the huge room. Severus just nodded and sat down.**

"**Why'd you hex Pettigrew?" I had decided to be upfront.**

"**I told you before."**

"**And I told you not to!"**

**Severus just shrugged. I grumbled.**

"**Alright then, what was accomplished? Pettigrew doesn't know **_**why**_** he was hexed and so will change nothing. Except I doubt he'll roam the corridors alone anymore."**

"**He'll get it."**

"**Uh, in case you didn't know, he's not that smart! And how could he know? Nobody knows! But by tomorrow the one thing he **_**will**_** know is that **_**you**_** hexed him! And being the rat that he is, he'll tell once he's asked."**

"**They won't do anything." He seemed awfully sure of himself. His stupid pride.**

"**Yeah, because hexing and altering the memory of a student **_**while**_** being out after curfew isn't a big deal."**

"**If someone altered his memory, then they could have made him think it was me. It's common knowledge him and his friends hate me."**

**I didn't know what to say to that. He was right. "I didn't think of that." I said quietly.**

"**So I'll be fine."**

"**You better not do anything to him again." I warned. Severus didn't say anything.**

"**Severus…" I felt like a mother scolding her child. "I'm serious. I said I'd tell you if he, or any other guy, tried anything. And I will. But only if you leave them alone until they do!"**

**There was a pause. "Alright." He gave in.**

"**Good." I gave him a huge smile.**

**I hadn't expected one back, Severus wasn't the smiley type, so when the corners of his mouth twitched up, I smiled even huger and hugged him. **

**He was completely caught off guard and I felt him tense up as soon as I touched him. I quickly backed off and took a step away from him.**

"**Uh, sorry, I couldn't help it." I said, embarrassed.**

"**No." That was all he said. But I could tell he meant don't be sorry.**

**That got me thinking about why he'd tensed up. He'd never really had a friend and I don't imagine his home life is the greatest. Then my eyes widened as a thought popped into my mind. **_**What if he's never been hugged before?**_** I wondered. No. That couldn't be true. I didn't get anymore time to wonder though because Severus was saying my name.**

"**Sandy?"**

"**Hmm? Yeah, what?" I snapped back to reality.**

"**What were you thinking?"**

**The thought popped into my mind again and I quickly pushed it away. "Nothing." I said. He didn't believe me, I could tell.**

**But he stared at me as intently as if he were trying to read my thoughts. But there was no way I was ever going to voice that question. No way. Severus looked at the ground.**

**It was some time before he looked up again, but it wasn't at me this time. His eyes roamed to the clock that was in the room and I followed his gaze and saw that it was close to 11.**

"**I should get to bed." I said and yawned.**

"**Goodnight." He said.**

"**Night. See you tomorrow." I answered. He nodded. With that we exited the door and I watched as it closed and disappeared behind us then as Severus walked away, down to the dungeons.**


	16. Chapter 16

I got back to my dormitory and was in bed, ready to sleep by 11:15. I fell asleep quickly and slept so well. It was no surprise that 7:00 came early the next morning.

"Sandy, wake up wake up wake up! Rise and shine!" Lily exclaimed as she shook me awake.

I groaned, but reluctantly got out of bed. Shuffling my way into the bathroom, I splashed my face with cold water. It did the trick; now I was awake. I took my time, more time than usual, getting dressed. Lily was done before me and waited patiently on her bed until I was ready.

We headed downstairs and found the room rather full. We pushed our way to the stairs to the guys' dormitory and waited for them. It was a half hour wait.

"What took you so long?" I asked as Remus was on his way down the stairs.

"We slept in." He stated simply, yawning.

Sirius, Pettigrew and James followed Remus and we headed down to breakfast. We arrived early and the Great Hall wasn't full yet and no food was on the tables. I did, however, notice Severus sitting in his usual place by himself. My mouth twitched up into a tiny smile when I saw him staring at me and one of the corners of his mouth did the same.

Sitting, we talked for the few minutes until the Hall started filling up and the delicious food covered the tables. It was always a wonder to me how so much food could be prepared 3 times a day. The elves downstairs were truly amazing at what they did.

Stuffing our faces, we laughed and talked while James and Sirius, and Pettigrew, discussed their upcoming pranks. I was glad to hear that almost none had to do with Severus. Almost. They were getting the Slytherins, of course, and had one Ravenclaw in mind as well. This Ravenclaw had been mocking Sirius in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

There was also a Quidditch match coming up against the Hufflepuffs, so a prank was in order to let them know who would be winning that match.

The Gryffindors had been doing well so far in Quidditch. We'd only played 1 game so far, but it was against the Slytherins and so it was extra special. We had, of course, beat them. James was indeed an excellent seeker. He'd caught the Snitch within an hour. Some games lasted hours; some even days.

We discussed our previous win on the way to Potions and James and Sirius, being themselves, had decided that the Slytherins would soon need reminding of their loss. Lily, Remus, and I weren't part of the prank discussions. We contributed a few ideas, none against Slytherin for me, and we always helped pull off the prank, but James and Sirius were the major thinkers.

Potions was boring after all the Quidditch and prank talk. We learned about love potions today and how dangerous they could be. Many girls perked up at the idea of using love potions but Professor Slughorn was very stern when instructing us never to use them.

Care of Magical Creatures was a fun class, we got to meet Nifflers. They dug through the ground and could find buried treasure and money. The student that found the most with their Niffler won 20 points for their house. Luckily, Pettigrew had gotten a particularly good Niffler and had found the most money. Unluckily for me however, he wanted a congratulatory hug.

"Way to go Peter!" I said and turned away from him.

"He just won you 20 points Melvorn! The least you could do is give him a hug!" Sirius called.

"Why don't you, Black?" I said, trying to sound like I was joking around.

"I would but I think he wants a hug from _you_." Sirius smiled. I gave him a don't-you-dare look but he shoved Pettigrew towards me.

"High-five!" I exclaimed, holding my hand up and slapping Pettigrew's as he slowly raised his. Then I turned and walked quickly away.

"Ew. Gross. Dirty." I mumbled as I walked back to the castle, alone.

Heading straight for a bathroom, I washed my hands, scrubbing hard. I exited, shaking my still damp hands and saw Severus in the empty hallway. Everyone was in their common-rooms finishing up late homework or getting their books.

"What are you doing?" Severus asked.

"Pettigrew-" I began but stopped when Severus's face hardened and his eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Hold on!" I said. "He didn't do anything. It was Sirius!"

"Black." Severus snarled.

"Pettigrew's Niffler found the most treasure and won us 20 points and Sirius thought the least I could do was give him a hug. So I gave him a high five and headed straight here to wash my hands."

"Black needs to learn to bugger off." Severus snarled.

"He's my friend Severus."

"How can you like that git?" He sounded genuinely surprised.

"I know he's not very…particular towards you but he's still nice to me. And I don't let him say anything about you." I trailed off as I neared the end of my sentence.

"You better get to class. You don't want to be late." And he left. I sighed.

But when I saw the clock I realized Severus was right. I had about 7 minutes to get to the common room, grab my books, and get to class. I began running towards the common room. I was on the ground floor and the Gryffindor tower was, needless to say, higher up.

"Sandy! I got your books!" Lily said as I ran past her. I stopped and wheeled around.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" I exclaimed, receiving some funny glances from passers-by.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was, as always, fantastic. We learned basic Stunning spells, which we'd all used before in our many after-hour expeditions and earned Gryffindor 5 points each, except for Pettigrew.

"See, breaking the rules is a good thing!" James whispered and we all chuckled.

Next was lunch and we were all starving. And excited. Now we could finally ask Pettigrew who hexed him. Even though I already knew, I feigned excitement to match the others'.

"So, who did it!?" We asked.

Pettigrew's eyes squinted then widened as he remembered. "Snape." He said.

"WHAT?" Sirius and James yelled. Heads everywhere turned to them but they sought out only one of those heads.

Severus's. Getting out of their seats, they marched over to the Slytherin table. It wasn't that they cared that deeply for their friend, a hex after hours isn't much; they did it all the time. What they really wanted was an excuse to let Severus Snape have it.

"What is going on?" Headmaster Dippet demanded.

Professor Dumbledore, my favourite Professor even though I had none of his classes this year, stood up along with many other teachers.


	17. Chapter 17

James and Sirius were almost at the table, Severus staring them in they eyes when Professor Dumbledore's voice rang out.

"I would like to see Peter Pettigrew please. Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, feel free to bring the friend you were going to see."

Murmurs filled the Hall as Pettigrew, with us all in tow, followed Professor Dumbledore out of the Great Hall. He lead us to the hallway and into and empty classroom.

"Headmaster Dippet asked me to look after this." He said in lieu of an explanation.

"Mr. Pettigrew, I take it you remember the events from…whenever it was, quite clearly now, is that correct?" Pettigrew nodded.

"Before we go on, would anyone like a jellybean?" And Dumbledore pulled a box of Every Flavor Bean from his robes and offered some to everyone. I accepted, and he smiled at me. I loved Professor Dumbledore.

"Now then," he continued, "who did this that is making Mr.'s Potter and Black so riled up?"

Pettigrew glanced at Severus and James and Sirius opened their mouths to speak. "I am quite sure Mr. Pettigrew is capable of answering a simple question, aren't you?" Dumbledore asked them. They shut their mouths immediately.

"M-Mr. Snape." Pettigrew squeaked.

"Hmm. Then it seems he and you are the only people needing to be here." His glance moved to the rest of us, clearly an invitation to leave.

We left, but returned to stick our ears to the door short moments later, only to curse once we did. Dumbledore had charmed the door so we couldn't hear what was going on. So we waited until Pettigrew came up, not followed by Severus,

"So what happened?" Remus asked.

Pettigrew shrugged. "He just asked me to explain what happened then dismissed me. Snape said it wasn't him and if my memory was altered then whoever did it could have made me think it was him."

"Rubbish." Sirius spat. So it wasn't as believable as Severus had thought it would be.

And Dumbledore was way too smart to be fooled by Severus. He'd know and get him in trouble. Just as I knew would happen.

The rest of lunch was tense and as we headed off to Charms with the Slytherins every Gryffindor and Slytherin was glaring as they passed each other. It was going to be a fun class…

I dragged behind everyone and shoved the note I'd scrawled earlier into Severus's hand as I passed him. It said to meet at the Room of Requirements at 10 again. No doubt he knew why.

Professor Clarmus had the Gryffindors and Slytherins sit on opposite sides of the room and made it very clear we were not to try anything. Everyone listened, but the mood was tense and not a lot was accomplished in that class.

Thankful that it ended, I glanced at Severus as I exited the room. He was, of course, looking at me too.

As the day ended, I was thankful to be back in the common room. We were pondering on what could have went on between Dumbledore and Severus. James thought, well more like hoped, that Dumbledore had punished Severus so badly that the rest of us couldn't hear. Sirius thought the same thing but added that Severus had had his wand taken away. Remus just sat quietly, shaking his head at their ridiculous ideas. Lily and I agreed with Remus.

I'd know who was right soon enough.

As it neared 9:30, I didn't want to be late like last time so I stretched and yawned, and headed off to bed. I was actually pretty tired.

"Night everybody. See you in the morning!" I said as I headed upstairs.

"Good night!" they all chimed. Lily decided to go to bed too.

We got ready, slipped into our beds, and talked for a bit, as we always did. I waited for Lily to fall asleep and looked at the clock. 9:45. Plenty of time to get to the Room of Requirements. Quickly getting dressed, I tip-toed downstairs in case the guys were still up.

They were. So I walked downstairs as nonchalantly as possible. They were yawning but looked confused when they saw me.

"Didn't you already go to bed?" Sirius asked.

"Couldn't sleep." I shrugged. "But, you guys look really tired, what are you still doing up? Planning some pranks?" I asked.

"Yes, actually." James said.

"Not me." Remus asked, getting back into his book, stifling a yawn.

"There'll be plenty of time for that tomorrow. You better not fall asleep in class and lose us points. Again." I warned; it had happened on multiple occasions.

"We won't." They reassured me.

"Good. Now I'm going to go for a little walk. It might help me sleep."

"It's after hours." Remus pointed out.

"I won't get caught. And if Snape tries anything, I'll hex him so bad he won't remember who he is." I reassured Sirius and James.

"You can take my cloak if you want." James offered.

"Awesome. Thanks." I said smiling. "I'll be back in 20 minutes. And you better not be here when I get back."

"Yeah yeah yeah. We won't be." Sirius said, waving his hand in the air.

"We're almost done." That was James.

James got me his cloak and I slipped under it and headed into the corridors. It was 9:50 so I could make it there in time tonight. Walking through the halls, I passed the caretaker. It was a good thing I had James's cloak with me. Last time I hadn't run into anybody. I only just realized how lucky that was. The caretaker was always wandering around the corridors and you could never be sure where he'd show up. Except with our map, but I didn't have that with me.

As I turned the corner to the right hall, I saw Severus leaning against the wall like he had been last night. I smiled to myself under the cloak and walked up to him.


	18. Chapter 18

**I didn't take the cloak off while I paced and thought about what I needed. So when the door opened, Severus's eyes widened in surprise. He looked around, trying to see where I was. I quickly pulled off James's cloak and rolled it up.**

"**An invisibility cloak?" Severus asked.**

"**Yea," I said, not wanting to say it was James's.**

**Not wanting to answer any further questions, I hurried into the room and shut the door behind Severus.**

"**So what is it this time?" He asked.**

"**Maybe I just wanted to talk!" I said, indignantly. He just looked at me. I sighed. "I want to know what happened with Dumbledore…" I admitted.**

"**He knew I was lying and that I hexed Pettigrew."**

"**And…" I prompted.**

"**That's it," he said.**

"**That's it? You didn't even get punished?" I was surprised. Severus must have been uncannily persuasive if Dumbledore didn't punish him. **

"**A few detentions." Severus shrugged.**

**I shook my head slightly. "Are you going to leave Pettigrew alone?" Severus didn't say anything but I could tell by the look he gave me that he had no intentions to do so.**

"**Severus, come on! What has he even done?" I asked. He couldn't be after Pettigrew **_**just**_** because of me.**

**Severus turned and started to walk away. I caught his wrist as he turned and felt his entire body tense immediately. He turned and gently yanked his arm away, if that's even possible to do. That hurt. Every time I touched him, he tensed. He says he likes me, but can't stand it when I touch him? It didn't make any sense.**

"**What?" I asked.**

"**What?" He asked.**

"**What is it about me that every time I touch you, you tense up and move away?" I demanded.**

"**Nothing." He sounded like he meant it but then what was his problem?**

"**Then what's the problem?" I was getting a little frustrated now.**

"**I don't know." Severus sounded almost upset, but his eyes and expression were indifferent.**

**I sighed, shaking my head. "See you tomorrow," I said as I slipped on the cloak and opened the heavy doors. I proceeded down the corridor for a bit then stopped at the end of it. Severus didn't come out for a bit but when he did, his head was hanging as he walked towards, then past me. My heart went out to him, he looked so sad.**

**I couldn't get the image of Severus out of my mind as I walked back to Gryffindor tower. Waking the portrait, I entered the common room , happy to see that it was empty. It was only 10:30 this time, opposed to 11:15 from last night. **_**At least I'll sleep better tonight**_** I thought.**

**And though I was less tired when I woke up the next day, I would have rather gotten back at midnight after a good time with Severus then what had happened last night.**

**As we entered the Great Hall my eyes, naturally, went to Severus. He was sitting in his usual place at the front of the table but he wasn't staring at me like he usually did. He was staring at his the remains of his already-eaten breakfast on his plate. My heart went out to him again.**

**I felt terrible because, obviously, this was my fault. I ate, lost in my own thoughts, until Remus's hand was waving in front of my face.**

"**You there?" He asked.**

"**Wha-? Yeah, why?" I asked, snapping back to the present.**

"**You were just staring, mate." James informed me.**

"**Was I? Sorry." I said, not sure what the proper response was to that.**

**From then on, I tried to be a bigger part of the conversation. I focused hard in class and when I saw Severus, I looked at him as usual, but he was almost never looking back. This went on for most of the day until it was time for Charms. I headed to class, dragging behind my friends a foot or so. Upon entering Charms, a note was shoved into my hand. Surprised, I looked up to see who it was.**

**It was Severus. He looked at me and I stared back, surprised. When I sat in my seat beside Lily, I opened the note.**

**Room of Requirements. 9:00.**

**Folding the note up, I put it into the pocket of my robe and focused on the Professor. He was teaching us a new charm that we would be tested on next week. After showing it to us and making us write a note about it, we got the rest of the class to work on it.**

**The six of us worked together, no one needing any help except for Pettigrew, and perfected it by the end of the class. Even Pettigrew had gotten the hang of it; not without a lot of help.**

**Our Quidditch match against Hufflepuff was tonight and so we had to carry out our prank. The last class of the day was Divination and we had it with the Hufflepuffs. So upon arriving, Sirius held his wand to his throat to magnify his voice and took on the voice of Headmaster Dippet.**

"**Attention Hufflepuffs. Your Seeker has been afflicted by the Engorgement Charm and will be unable to play. Your substitute must either be Henry Bane or Susanna Bollip. Good luck." And with that we stood outside the hatch into the class and laughed for 5 minutes before entering just before we were late.**

**Henry and Susanna were both in our class, and they both could hardly get 10 feet off the ground without having to come back down. We watched their worried faces, each clearly thinking "Oh no oh no oh no! You not me!"**

**We could hardly keep from bursting out laughing, especially when our Divination Professor insisted she'd seen this coming this morning while drinking her morning tea and reading the leaves. Which led her into today's lesson, reading tea leaves.**

**This was going to be a fun class.**


	19. Chapter 19

Reading tea leaves had been fantastic. It got my mind off of Severus…somewhat. We drank our tea and read our leaves. James's said today would be a good one, Sirius's said today would be filled with happiness, Pettigrew's said for him to be careful, Lily's said she'd have plenty of accomplishments, Remus's said he'd find an answer, and mine…mine was about love.

After reading our leaves, we made sure the Professor wasn't near us and set to work. We all, even Remus and Lily, formed our own shapes with the tea leaves. Looking in the book that translated the images in the tea leaves, we looked up a few symbols. Surprise and victory. Quickly molding our shapes, we placed our cups down.

"Now class," the Professor began, "let us read some of our leaves." She always sounded like she were in a different world, which perhaps she was, but powerful all the same.

"Ah yes, Mr. Potter. I think you have an interesting sign in your cup."

"I do indeed." James began, sounding very excited and surprised at the same. We clamped our mouths shut to keep from laughing. "The symbol in mine depicts that today there will be a huge surprise!" With that he looked over to Henry and Susanna, both still freaked out about one of them having to be Seeker today…supposedly. "Well we all did get a surprise just a few minutes ago! This really works!" He exclaimed.

We nodded our heads enthusiastically.

"Very good Mr. Potter. And you Mr. Lupin?" She turned her dreamy-eyed gaze to Remus.

"Mine's the symbol of victory. Do you think it could be talking about today's match?" He asked, and if I hadn't known he was joking I would have believed him.

"We shall see." Professor said.

She asked many other people, but no more from our tables and we laughed silently, keeping our eyes on Henry and Susanna. The Professor didn't ask them however, which would have been hilarious but we'd had enough fun as it was.

It was time for the Quidditch match and we made our way to the pitch, excited for what was going to happen. James got dressed and we followed him to where the Hufflepuff's locker room was. James entered first, making sure everyone in there was dressed. After giving us the signal, we entered as well.

"What are you doing here?" Brandus Seilop, the Hufflepuff Seeker asked.

"We could ask you the same thing." James responded.

Bradus's expression told us he was about to protest and ask what we were talking about, but at that moment, Henry Bane walked in; dressed in full Quidditch gear and carrying one of the school's brooms. Bradus's quizzical expression turned to Bane.

"What are _you_ doing here?" He demanded.

"I-I'm here to be the Seeker." Bane stammered.

"What!? _I'm_ the Seeker, don't you know that?" Steilop demanded.

"Ye-yes I do b-but Headmaster Dippet said that either Susanna Bollip or I was to be the Seeker in today's match."

"WHAT?" Steilop was outraged.

"It's true, we were there." Sirius interjected.

Not laughing during all this was close to impossible but we all managed it. The whistle blew, ending the bombardment of angry questions Steilop was giving Bane. Fuming, Steilop went to follow the Hufflepuff Quidditch team onto the field but James's hand on his shoulder stopped him. This angered Steilop even more since he was a sixth year and James was a third.

Bane gulped and walked onto the pitch after his team in tow. Steilop glared at us and we kept straight faces.

"Bane! What are you doing on the pitch? Get Off!" yelled the referee. "Where's Steilop?" the ref demanded.

Henry looked around wildly confused. We then ran out of the locker room, and back to Gryffindor's so James wouldn't miss following his captain onto the field. Laughing uncontrollably, we wished James luck as best we could and headed to the stands.

"It was Potter!" Steilop shouted, pointing to the locker room, where James no longer was.

"I don't care who it was! Just get Bane off the pitch so we can start the match!"

Bane hurried away and Steilop got on his broom. The Gryffindor's then walked onto the pitch and we cheered as loudly as possible.

James would have caught the Snitch within the first half hour of the game but a Hufflepuff Chaser threw the Quaffle at him; they all suspected James was the one to blame for the prank. James, however, was one of the best flyers at Hogwarts and dodged the Quaffle. He dodged all the Bludgers that were launched at him and all the players that tried to hit him.

It was the first match in which a Quaffle had been thrown at him. He still caught the Snitch and Gryffindor cheered. Gryffindor trumped Hufflepuff 170 to 10. Cheers erupted from the stands and we hurried down to congratulate James.

Steilop tried to get at him but was stopped by the ref. "He tried to change our Seeker!" He shouted to the ref.

"But he didn't!" the ref shouted back.

Laughing we headed back to the common room where everyone clapped James on the back and congratulated him. A huge smile was plastered on his face, not leaving it the entire time we celebrated. I was glad the time Severus chose for our meeting was late enough that I could enjoy the party. Severus…

I pushed the thought of him from my mind so I could enjoy the party. Our last meeting hadn't ended so well after all. Getting back into the party I congratulated James and persuaded Lily to give him a congratulatory hug. James, not missing a beat, swung her around.

"Potter put me down!" Lily protested, laughing. They really were friends, and I hoped Lily would come to her senses and say yes to the boy. They'd be great together. As great as Lily thought Severus and I would be. Severus…

Once again I pushed the thought of him away and enjoyed the rest of the party.


	20. Chapter 20

People started heading off to their dormitories around 9, just when I decided to leave. I was going to be late…again. Severus wouldn't mind.

Despite the fact that we weren't on the greatest of terms at the moment, I was excited to see him again. Slipping out of the common room unnoticed by my friends, I headed off to the Room of Requirements. I made it there in less than 10 minutes, to see Severus leaning against the wall as always. I smiled a bit to myself.

"Hey…" I greeted him tentatively.

"Hey."

Severus opened the doors as soon as they appeared and shut them after he followed me into the room. I made my way to one of the red chairs, and sat down, rigid.

"So…?" I asked.

"I saw what you did at the Quidditch match," his mouth twitched in a small smile, "nice." He said.

I smiled, not only because he thought we did a nice job. "Thanks." I said. Then my smile disappeared. "But I hardly think you asked me to come here because of our prank."

"No, I didn't."

"Then what for?"

"Because I'm…" Severus stopped before he finished his sentence. I looked at him expectantly, waiting to hear what he had to say. "…Sorry." He finished.

I was stunned. "What?" I asked, skeptical.

"Sorry." It sounded weird coming out of the mouth of Severus Snape, and he looked uncomfortable saying it.

"For what?"

"Yesterday," he said.

"What? No, don't be. If you don't like me touching you then I won't. I mean I know it's not just me, that you don't like people in general touching you. It's fine," I reassured him, being as convincing as I could.

"No."

"Kay, I'm going to need some longer sentences in this conversation to understand completely." These one-word sentences didn't do much as explanations.

"It's not fine. And it's not true."

"What part isn't true?"

"That I don't like you touching me." Severus looked so awkward and I wanted to hurry this along so he wouldn't have to be so uncomfortable.

"Then what is it?" Severus looked as calm and cool as always. When he didn't answer immediately I decided to drop it. "Never mind. I know you don't like talking about this kind of stuff. I understand." And I was really okay with it. At least I know he didn't hate the idea of me even grabbing his wrist.

"No. I don't want to be so cold. But I'm not used to all this…warmth." He said, choosing his words carefully.

"I know, that's why it's ok."

"But it's not." He stood from the couch he'd been occupying and turned his back to me; maybe it made it easier. "I don't want you to think I don't _feel _all the things you do."

"I don't think that."

He turned to look at me and walked so he was standing right in front of me. My face was level to his navel so I stood up as well. Hesitantly, so very hesitantly, Severus's arms went around me and held me in a hug. His body stayed tense, but the idea that he was hugging me and that he _wanted_ to made me melt. My body, contrary to his rigidness, went loose and I wanted to wrap my arms around him too, but for his sake I stayed still.

After a few minutes he became a little less tense, and after another minute or two he let go. His face was as calm and cool and ever. My face, however, was plastered with a huge, toothy grin. This made his eyes smile.

"Thank you," I whispered, looking straight at him.

"Thank you," he said.

"For what?" What did he have to thank me for? I hadn't done anything.

Instead of answering me, he smiled. A real smile. It was beautiful.

And I couldn't help it. I hugged him. And it was a big one. He instantly tensed but slowly relaxed and hugged me back. I smiled but didn't look up to see if he was too. I didn't care. He could be scowling if he wanted to but I wasn't letting go.

After a few minutes, however, I did let go, a huge smile plastered on my face. Tonight was definitely the best night of my life…so far. I was quite sure that many, many more would be ahead of me. Ahead of us.


	21. Chapter 21

I couldn't keep the smile off of my face as I headed back to the common room. I did, however, tone it down a bit as I entered the portrait hole. Severus had asked about the prank so I explained it to him and he laughed - it wasn't a laugh laugh, more like a chuckle of sorts, but it was amazing nonetheless. After that we said our 'see you laters and went back to our common rooms.

And here we are.

"Where'd you disappear off to?" Lily asked as I entered.

"And why so happy? Again?" This was from Sirius.

"As happy as I was, and still am, for James, I wanted to get some fresh, non-crowded air. And I'm generally happy person. Smiling's what I do." I flashed a huge grin to prove my point and cast Lily a meaningful glance.

She looked confused and I told the guys I was going to get into my pajamas; Lily followed.

"What is it?" She asked, concern in her voice. I smiled hugely. I hadn't been keeping her very informed about the goings-on between me and Severus but this she could know.

"What is it?" Excitement was in her voice now.

"Things are good with me and Severus."

"Well yeah, haven't they always been?" I really hadn't told her much.

"No, we found a place to talk and stuff, that's where I've been going, but there was this whole thing and all…but now it's good and we're good and it's great." It all came out in a rush, with many added hand flourishes, and I smiled when I was done.

Lily, after making sense of what I'd said, smiled too. "Well good! Now all you two have to do is…make it public." My eyes widened.

"Uh, no. I told you already, no. It'll just end badly for both of us. Sirius and James would disown me and so would the rest of the school and Slytherin would disown him because I'm a Gryffindor. We're fine the way we are."

"Sirius and James like you more than they hate him. They'd get over it. So would the rest of the school. _Plus_, Pettigrew would definitely leave you alone then." She smiled enticingly at the last part.

"As nice as that last part sounds, I don't think so." I could see she was about to protest but I motioned for her not to. "How about this. Because I love you just _oh so_ much, I will mention it to him sometime and see what he says. Okay?"

"Alright. You better too! And I want to know what he says!" She pointed a finger at me and I laughed.

"You got it, sir." I said jokingly, laughing.

Getting our pajamas on, we headed back downstairs. It was around 10:15 and we'd be going to bed soon.

"That took about 3 times longer than necessary…" Sirius commented upon our arrival.

"I didn't know you were waiting for us. Sorry to keep you waiting so long!" I said sarcastically.

"You should be." He smirked.

"Oh!" I exclaimed.

"What is it?" asked Remus, worried.

"That Slug thing is tomorrow!" I just remembered.

"Oh yeah! Joy…" Lily's voice was full of sarcasm.

"At least you guys get to go." Sirius and James were complaining.

"Sirius couldn't find a date?" I gasped dramatically and covered my mouth with my hand.

"It's me. Of course I could. There are no girls worth going with in that thing!" Sirius defended himself.

"Oh alright then…" I said clearly not believing him.. Although I knew he was because Sirius Black never had trouble finding dates.

"Well we will deal with it when the time comes. Wait until you see who's there." Lily said to me.

I was confused. "Who?" I asked.

She didn't say anything and headed upstairs. I shrugged and waved to the guys. "Night! See ya's in the morning'!" I said.

"Night."

"Good night."

"See ya." They all said.

We went upstairs and to bed. I wondered about who would be at the party that Lily was talking about but forgot about it when thoughts of Severus filled my head before I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up on Friday morning before Lily did. This only happened on rare occasions so I took advantage of the situation and walked over to her bedside, careful not to wake the others in our dormitory. As quick as the lion I could become I took her pillow and started beating her with it.

"Hey! What is this!?" She yelled.

I stopped hitting her and whispered "Shhh. People are sleeping!" I tossed her the pillow back and sauntered off to get ready.

"That was unnecessary." Lily yawned as she followed me.

"You get to do it all the time so it's only fair."

She shrugged and we got dressed in our robes and headed downstairs. The guys weren't awake yet but we decided to be nice today and let them sleep. They came down a few minutes later, yawning and stretching. They waved to us and before they could sit, Lily and I stood and headed to breakfast. They followed us.

Looking at Severus as usual, I offered a small smile this time which he returned…to an extent. His was just and upward twitch of his lips while mine was actually a smile. It was still great. We ate and went to Potions. Severus brushed against my shoulder as he walked in ahead of me.

"Watch where you're going Snivellus!: Sirius sneered, but Severus didn't even turn back and I smiled inwardly.

The rest of the day went by well and then it was time for Slughorn's party. Yay?


	22. Chapter 22

Lily and I headed back to our dormitory at 7:00. The party was in an hour so we decided to give ourselves some time to get ready.

After zipping up Lily's dress for her, I curled her hair. After curling her hair, I brushed mine. I wasn't planning on going to extreme lengths for this party…I was just going for the comedy that I hoped would ensue when Lily's 'date' was a girl.

With Lily and I all ready to go we stood in the mirror. Lily's emerald green dress fell to her knees and looked great with her red hair. She'd used an Engorgement Charm on my shoes so they'd fit her feet and the black pumps looked great. Overall _she_ looked great.

My dress was knee length also, and it fell to my knees also. I was wearing a pair of silver pumps with it. Both of our dresses were thick strapped, but Lily's had a black netting underlay to it that made it flow out while mine curled in at the bottom to have the same effect. We really did look like dates.

I made my way carefully down the stairs, I couldn't walk well in heels, keeping a hand on the wall at all times. Entering the dormitory, we headed straight for the portrait hole, not without meeting the guys of course.

"Lookin' good Evans." James said, whistling.

Lily scowled and was about to retort but I spoke up instead. "Ahem!"

"You too, Melvorn." James said, not nearly as enthusiastically.

"Thanks for the enthusiasm…" I said sarcastically.

"You want enthusiasm? Hey, Wormtail, how do you think Sandy looks?" James called over his shoulder.

Remus, Sirius, and Pettigrew were playing a game of Exploding Snap and hadn't heard us come down. At the mention of his name Pettigrew, and the others, turned to look at us. Pettigrew's eyes were instantly glued to me and Sirius whistled.

"You two look beautiful." Remus, being the gentleman he was, said.

"Thank you Remus," I said warmly, "and can I help you Peter?" I asked, trying to keep the venom and disgust out of my voice.

"You-you look…" he didn't finish.

"Thanks," I said weakly.

"Well, we're off." Lily exclaimed and headed out the door. I followed her, not without giving James a glare.

We made our way to the Potions room which had been cleared out for tonight's events. I had tripped a few times but had seemed to get the hang of the while heels thing by the time we arrived at the door. They were only like 2 maybe 3 inch heels too, making it even sadder.

Opening the door, we were immediately greeted by Slughorn.

"Ms. Evans! Glad you could make it! Did you bring anyone with you?" He asked, clearly not registering why I was there.

"Yes, I did. You know Sandy Melvorn." She said, gesturing to me.

"Oh. Yes, I do. I thought maybe she had come with some else…" The look on his face was worth the tripping and the sore feet. "I'd rather hoped you would bring one of your three friends there."

"No, sorry to disappoint." Lily said, not sounding sorry at all.

"Nonsense! Enjoy!" Slughorn recovered.

"Next time, you could invite them." I offered as I walked by him on my way in.

Once inside and away from Slughorn who'd gotten deep into conversation with someone already, Lily and I burst out laughing. This went one for a few minutes until we went and sat down.

"See? This club is boring." Lily was saying.

"Get him to invite the rest of us. I doubt there'll be anything about Pettigrew he'd want to recruit so just leave him out of it." I suggested.

"No, he doesn't take suggestions." Lily scowled.

"His loss!" And with that we started to eat.

The food was good, not nearly as good as the food in the Great Hall, but still good. We talked to the least conceited people there; there weren't many of them at all. Everyone was "My father did this." "My grandmother was the first with to…" "My family owns…" and so on and so forth. It was really very annoying.

I was getting ready to leave after about an hour until I remembered something. "Hey Lily. Who was it that you were so excited was going to be here?" I asked her.

"Oh I was wondering when you'd ask. I wasn't excited for me, I was excited for you." She smiled hugely.

I was confused. She chuckled when she saw my confused face and pulled to the outskirts of the crowd and pointed.

There, standing alone, pretending to listen to Slughorn's rambling, dressed in a suit and tie, towering over the rambling Professor…was Severus Snape.

"He's part of your club thing? Why didn't you tell me?" I demanded, hiding myself.

"I didn't think it was of importance. Besides, I figured you would of known. Why are you hiding?"

Lily and Severus were friends-ish. She was always nice to him even if he was cold back and he was nicer than he was to most with her. At least that's what she said. I'd never seen them so much as wave at each other.

"Because! If he sees me he's going to think I'm here with someone! Was this all a ploy to get us to be open or whatever it is you wanted?" I was getting frustrated.

Lily just laughed, doing nothing to alleviate my frustration. "No, there was no ploy. Although this would have been a bloody good one! Here, watch this." And with that she started to walk towards him.

I had a mini freak out while I hid behind a statue and peeked over it's head to see what Lily was doing. She murmured something to Slughorn and he nodded politely and left. Then she turned to Severus. _She better not…_ I thought warningly. But then she did.

Severus's eyes were fixed on the spot where I was hiding and I ducked down behind the statue.

"Stupid Lily…" I mumbled as I heard the click of heels and the unmistakable thud of shoes coming towards me.

"Hello," I waved at them, trying to act casual.


	23. Chapter 23

"**Melvorn." Severus said coolly.**

"**Snape." I greeted with the same coolness in my voice.**

"**What are you doing here." He sounded indifferent, like he didn't care. I hoped he was just a really good actor.**

"**I'm with Lily." I said, trying to mimic his indifference but not quite managing to because I was happy to see him and surprised by how good he looked in a suit.**

"**I noticed." He said.**

**Not knowing how to respond to that, I looked to Lily. She was smiling. I wondered if Severus knew that she knew about us. I certainly hoped he didn't.**

"**You sound like you're talking to Sirius. And you sound like you're Sirius talking to him." Lily said, acting like she had no idea what was going on. **_**Good,**_** I thought.**

"**No, Sirius would be hexing him right about now." I corrected her.**

"**No, Sirius would have been hexed long before this." The venom in Severus's voice was real and it was directed not only to Sirius, but to James and Pettigrew as well. I was quite sure that Severus had nothing against Remus, he'd never done anything wrong to him.**

"**Well this has been pleasant, but I think I'm going to head off to bed. This is just a gathering of self-centered gits." I said, looking to Lily.**

"**Alright then. See you, Sev," Lily said as we turned to walk away.**

"**See you." Lily was the only person, besides me that Severus was nice to. People always said he loved her…I never thought about it until now; but I thought nothing of it.**

**As I left, I looked over my shoulder to see Severus staring after me. I gave him a smile to show that I hadn't meant the things I said and the twitching up of his mouth let me know that he did and that he hadn't meant the coolness towards me he had shown.**

**That had been fun…. Not really. It had been great to see Severus dressed up in a suit that I was sure he borrowed. Severus didn't have a lot of money, at least I didn't think he did. His jeans were always too short and his robes always overly large. He had cleaned up well tonight though, and he had looked rather good, even though he always did.**

**As we were making our way back to Gryffindor tower, I tripped…again. Lily caught me before I hit the floor and helped me regain my balance. At that moment, I decided to simply take my heels off. **

"**These things are death traps waiting to happen!" I grumbled.**

"**Or maybe, you're just a klutz?" Lily suggested, chuckling as I glared at her.**

"**I may be a klutz but I could still kick your butt." I told her.**

**She snorted. "Believe what you want."**

**I didn't say anything but the rest of the way to the common room I couldn't help but wonder who would win in a fight. A fist fight and a magical fight. So once we arrived back at the tower, I tossed my shoes onto the couch and plopped down beside them, rubbing my sore feet.**

**Lily came and sat next to me, neither of us bother to change at the moment.**

"**So how was it?" Remus asked.**

"**Just like the rest of the meeting; a bragging convention apparently." She said.**

"**I agree." I felt that my input was necessary.**

**Remus chuckled.**

"**Hey guys?" I asked.**

"**Yeah," they all said at the same time.**

"**That was weird," I said before asking my question, "who would win a fight, me or Lily?"**

"**Evans. No doubt." James answered immediately, flashing Lily a huge smile that made her smile smugly at me.**

"**Of course he's going to pick you!" I said. "His answer's rigged."**

"**I-I think you'd win, Sandy." Pettigrew squeaked.**

"**Ha! So is his!" Lily said, pointing to Pettigrew who blushed wildly and looked away.**

"**What kind of fight are we talking about here? Magic, or fists?" Sirius asked.**

"**Padfoot's got a point." Remus said.**

"**Fist," I answered.**

**There was silence as everyone thought. Remus was the first to answer.**

"**Lily."**

"**Evans." James.**

"**Lily." Sirius.**

"**Sandy." Pettigrew, obviously.**

"**Ha! Oh yeah, that's right!" Lily said, rubbing it in my face.**

"**What!? I could beat her up!" I complained.**

"**If you allowed a broom, maybe." Sirius said. I was a better flyer than she was, They'd been bugging me to try out for a position as Chaser on the Quidditch team for a few weeks now.**

"**Whatever. Ho about magical?" I couldn't lose 0 for 2 in this.**

**More silence. Sirius was the first to answer this time.**

"**Melvorn." Sirius. I flashed him a smile.**

"**Sandy." Remus nodded.**

"**Evans." James, obviously.**

"**Sandy." Pettigrew.**

"**Ha! I would win!" I said, rubbing it in.**

"**What!? How? We have pretty much the same marks!" Lily complained.**

"**Yeah, but Sandy practices magic above our years. More than we do, that is." Remus said.**

"**Her reflexes…spell-wise anyways…are faster." Sirius said.**

**Smiling, I laughed at Lily's upset face and headed upstairs to get changed out of our dresses.**


	24. Chapter 24

"If it makes you feel any better, I think it'd be a tie. You're a phenomenal witch and you know it." I told Lily as we headed to bed later that night.

Lily looked at me and her eyes told me that she didn't agree. "No, they're right. You put more into than I do."

"Are you kidding me? More than _you_, Miss Never-Stops-Thinking-About-It?" I asked skeptically.

"I think about it all the time but you practice at all the time. Honestly, I'm surprised you haven't been expelled yet."

"Hey! It's not like I do it at home!"

"Yeah, but you'd think one of the teachers would catch you conjuring patronuses in the corridors among other things."

"Look at who we're friends with. By now, I think we've all learned how not to get caught if we don't to be." I said.

She smiled and gave me a you're-absolutely-right look. With that we laid down in our beds and went to sleep.

Saturday morning, I didn't wake up for breakfast and I had given Lily rather expressive directions to _not_ wake me up this morning. So when 10 o'clock rolled around and I drifted into awake-ness, I felt great. I stretched and got out of bed. I must have gotten at least 9 hours of sleep. We'd stayed up until around 1:30 making fun of James and Sirius for not pulling any of their other planned pranks yet.

"We're working on it!" they had defended themselves profusely.

I walked downstairs in my pajamas to see it the gang sitting there on the chairs and couch we always occupied. I waved as I sat down beside Sirius in the last open spot on the couch.

"When did everyone else get up?" I asked.

"Nine." Remus said.

"Nine." Pettigrew said.

"Nine thirty." James said.

"Nine thirty." Pettigrew squeaked, of course he'd be up as soon as James was. He could probably sense these things by now.

"Like 5 minutes ago." Sirius, obviously.

"Eight." Lily. Everyone's head turned to look at her. "What?" she defended herself. "I like breakfast!"

We laughed and planned out today's schedule. James and Sirius had decided that a prank on Severus was necessary for hexing Peter. I, however, convinced them that it would be better to get all of the Slytherins while we could. So after much, really no, consideration, the prank was set.

After they were finished lunch, James and Sirius went to set up the prank. I didn't think anything of it until Lily pulled me aside as we walked to the common room.

"Sandy, they're going after Severus." She said fervently.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"They're not pranking all of Slytherin! They're going to get Severus."

"But-! Last night…" I said.

"While you were sleeping this morning, they decided that Sev should get it, alone. For hexing Peter. But they know we wouldn't let them so they didn't tell us. I only found out because they didn't see me hiding behind the bookshelf in the library while they planned it."

"Well let's go!" I said, running.

"Sandy! You can't do anything or they'll find out about you guys!" Lily said as she ran with me. I nodded to her.

Outside, a crowd was forming around a large tree. At the centre of the crowd was Severus with Sirius and James closing in on him. Remus, even from where we were, looked uneasy about this but Pettigrew and the other two looked like they were enjoying it.

James and Sirius, as we made our way through the crowd, lifted Severus upside down into the air, causing his robes to fall over his head and his underpants to show.

"Potter!" Lily shouted angrily.

"Put him down!" I yelled, taking out my wand.

"Alright" James said, letting Severus drop. The entire crowd, except for Lily, Remus and I, were laughing outrageously at Severus.

"Leave him alone!" Lily shouted!

"I don't need you to stick up for me, Mudblood." Severus snarled at her.

Lily looked hurt, but that was quickly replaced by fury. "Fine." She stomped off back to the castle.

I looked at Severus, devastated. "Severus…?" I mumbled, uncomprehending.

"Severus!? Since when have you called him that?" Sirius asked.

I didn't look at him. I couldn't believe Severus had just said that. To my best friend. And to the one person he'd ever been friends with, except for me.

"Sandy? Why are you staring at this _git?_" James spat the last word out at Severus. He was furious, as furious as Lily was, if not more.

"I hope your blood rots in your veins!" He shouted. The crowd had started to disperse, realizing that this had become more than a prank.

Severus stared, cold as ice. Colder than I'd ever seen him. "On second thought," James continued, "why don't I help you with that?" he raised his wand.

I was torn. He deserved to be punished for being so hateful to Lily. But at the same time, I couldn't stand by, again, and let him get bullied by them. _What do I do?_ I asked myself.


	25. Chapter 25

James, Sirius, Pettigrew, and even Remus had their wands pointed at Severus's chest. No one messed with anyone in our group of friends. Severus snarled at the, his own wand raised and moving from one person to another.

"You can't take us all." James snarled derisively.

"He's right." I told Severus, looking down.

Severus's eyes, for a split second, moved away from them to me. In that split second, the four of them had each formed a spell on their tongues.

"_Expelliarmus!_"

James's wand flew out of his hand. I knew he hadn't had a harmless hex ready for Severus. It would have been something bad, something Severus hadn't learned yet. It wouldn't be fatal, but it would have hurt, I was sure.

I aimed my wand at Sirius next, but he just stared at me incredulously. They all did. I hung my head and looked at the ground. The I walked away. Without a second glance, I headed towards the castle, running as tears streamed down my face.

They would disown me. I had defended the person they hated most, even after he had called my best friend one of the worst names in the wizarding world. They'd never talk to me again. And once Lily heard what I'd done, she'd disown me too. My friends were more important to me than anything, but James had been planning to use either _Reducto_ or _Diffindo_ on Severus. I was sure of it. I'd taught him then recently in the summer. They would both have hurt him badly and James could have been expelled and Severus seriously injured so it was really best for everyone in the long run.

That wouldn't matter to any of them, though. They would just see me defending the enemy. So, instead of going to the common room, I headed to an upstairs corridor that usually would make s smile appear on my lips because of who I usually saw there.

He wouldn't be there this time, though. He would see my defending him as making him look weak and my walking away afterwards as betrayal or rejection.

Reaching the blank space of wall, I opened the door that had appeared there. _Somewhere to be alone_ I had thought. I was going to think _Somewhere no one can find me_ but I wasn't sure if I didn't want them to find me.

Inside was a single, very inviting, red armchair. I sat in it, trying to keep my mind blank, very unsuccessfully. The realization that James, Sirius, Remus, and Pettigrew - Prongs, Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail - had the map. They'd know where I was. But they wouldn't know how to get inside. Only Severus knew how, but I was quite sure he wouldn't come for me.

I sat there crying for I don't know how long until I fell asleep in the chair.

I woke up and saw that I had slept for an hour or so. And no one had come, just as I'd known they wouldn't. So, needing to stretch my legs, I got up and walked around the room but, already, I was getting sick of the four walls in this room.

So I walked over to the door and opened it. Not caring who I saw outside, I'd cried all my tears in that room, I headed out to the grounds. It was around 2:00 in the afternoon and so many people were roaming outside. They all glanced at me, the entire school would have heard about today's events by now. But no one ever went into the Forbidden Forest.

It was forbidden to go into the forest unless you were with a teacher or staff member, but I could protect myself. Both my parents were Aurors and I had been taught early how to protect myself. That's why I've always been a year or two ahead of my classes, at least the ones revolved around spells and defence. So I'd taught my friends everything I've been taught to protect them.

It was darker in the Forest then it was out on the grounds, but I didn't mind. There wasn't anything really to worry about during the day, especially if I just stuck to the outskirts, which I planned on doing. Magical creatures had always fascinated me; I loved them. And I loved the Forest.

I kept my eyes open for any creatures, and my mind was taken away from the dreary thoughts that had been occupying it for the past few hours. However, not many creatures were to be found this close to the edge of the Forest. Most lived deeper within the dark woods where fewer people ventured.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a voice. "Hey! Sandy! What are you doing in there?"

It was Ogg. Seeing him, I smiled. I exited the Forest and met him just as I was about to step back into the sunlight.

"You're not supposed to be in there. It's Forbidden." He said sternly.

"I stayed close to the edges, and you know my parents, I'm pretty sure I could handle myself in there." I said.

"Like during your detention?" He asked. And the flashback came.

I didn't want to think about it because I didn't want to get upset again. But Ogg was my friend and I followed him back to his quarters and stated, more than asked, "So you haven't heard then?"

"About the scenario by the tree? Yeah. Most of the school has by now."

I sighed. "Figured," I mumbled.

"Look, Sandy, you did what was right. Snape, there, shouldn't have said what he said but if I know James, what he had planned for Mister Snape wouldn't have been pleasant."

"I know. But you know how much they despise him. They're going to disown me! Do you know what happened after I walked away?" I asked.

"From what I could see from here, Snape got hit with something by Remus, before he could hit James with whatever he'd had in mind."

"Remus?" I was surprised. "Well if Remus was that mad that he'd hit Severus with something, then there's no hope for them talking to me ever again." I said. I was surprised by how indifferent I sounded. _Severus's indifference must have rubbed off on you _I thought.

"No, I don't think so. I think Remus, there, did it so the rest of 'em didn't get a chance to hit Snape with anything worse."

That put a small portion of hope in my chest.

"Thanks Ogg, I'll come visit you soon," I promised. This made me realize how nice Ogg really was…and he's a lot smarter than one would have thought too.

"No problem, it was nice to see ya!" He said as I left the hut and headed back to the castle.


	26. Chapter 26

In my slightly elevated emotional state, I almost went to the common room but realized where I was heading and corrected my path so that I was headed to the Quidditch pitch. There was no match set for today, the next one was on Wednesday, but Gryffindor wasn't playing then. Not that I would have went anyways. But the pitch was empty now and so I grabbed a spare broom from the storage closet and pushed off into the air.

It was odd to be flying on a broom that wasn't my own, but mine was in my dormitory and therefore unreachable at the present time. I flew around the pitch a few times, realizing how cold it was. Winter would be here in a matter of weeks. People outside were already wearing jumpers.

Maneuvering my way around the pitch at top speed, I felt a little bit better. A very little bit. _Perhaps I should sign up for the team next year_, I thought. This whole thing should be blown over by then. I hoped so.

It must have been supper because as I locked the broom back in it's cupboard, I was the last person outside. Entering the castle, I could hear the sound of many voices coming from the Great Hall. I didn't veer that way though, I headed to the stairs.

"Miss Melvorn, are you not hungry?" Albus Dumbeldore.

"Sandy, please, Professor." I said, hedging his question.

"Sandy then. Not hungry? There's pudding, you know. Very good too."

"No, I'm not very hungry," I said. But Professor Dumbledore was a smart man.

"True friendship can withstand the toughest of battles." He said, seemingly out of nowhere but I knew what he was talking about.

"Not when the friend sides with the common enemy."

"There is no common enemy if a single person is on his side. A single person." I had to smile at that.

"Thank you Professor." I said, smiling at him.

"Dumbledore, please. Acid Pop?" He offered, pulling an odd looking candy from his robes.

"No thank you. Dumbledore." I added with a smile. He was truly a great man.

The Room of Requirements opened to reveal a bed and a tray of food. I ate the food and crept into the bed. It was only around 6:00 p.m but I was surprisingly tired and so I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. It took a while to fall asleep but when I did, it wasn't peaceful.

I tossed and turned, never seeming to be able to get comfortable. My dreams were filled with flashes of my friend having fun together without me and Severus back to being all alone but not seeming to mind one bit, not seeming to miss m at all. After waking up, again, I gave up on sleep.

It was now around 9:00. _The time of my last meeting with Severus_ I couldn't help but think. That really helped pick up my mood. I frowned in frustration at how my brain liked to bring up memories from things I didn't need or want to remember right now. Rolling over to pull my pillow over my head, I fell off the bed and onto the hard cement floor. Groaning, I stayed there. And just then the memory of Severus hugging me came to mind.

That one hurt. As I struggled to push it away I heard a creaking sound. Like a door being opened. _It's just my imagination_ I thought. _Probably Peeves up to no good again._ Peeves loved to prank students. That's why he loved us so much. He often helped in our pranks, part of the reason why they were always so successful. He never missed the chance to prank us though. We were still students.

But the creaking got louder and light appeared from behind me coming from an unknown source. I knew who it was. Only one other person, that I knew of anyway, knew how to get in here. So either there was someone who needed the same room as me right now, or Severus Snape had just entered this room.

Slowly I lifted myself up onto my elbows and my eyes were just high enough so that I could see over the bed. And sure enough, outlined in the doorway of the Room, was the tall lanky figure of Severus Snape.

_What is he doing here? I thought, heart racing. Probably wants to yell at me._

Ready for the yelling to start at any moment, and ready to yell back if I had to, I stood up and walked around to the side of the bed closest to Severus.

"Can I help you?" I asked indifferently.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, gesturing to my humble abode.

"Well I can't go back to my dormitory now can I?"

"Why not?"

"As if you don't know," I said angrily. Severus didn't say anything so I elaborated for him.

"Because of you!" I said loudly. "If you hadn't called Lily that _foul_ name then the rest of them, especially James, wouldn't have ganged up on you and none of this would have happened! The guys wouldn't disown me and Lily would still be my friend! But I protected you because I knew James wasn't joking around this time. And I don't care what your _pride_ tells you, you wouldn't have been ready for it."

I hadn't realised that tears had started to stream from my eyes but I hastily wiped them away, not wanting him to see how distraught I was by all this. Severus walked towards me, he had closed the door before my rant, and hugged me. It was my turn to tense up.

As much as I wanted to give in and hug him back and forgive him so that everything could be ok, I couldn't. So I braced my hands on his chest and pushed him away. He looked slightly taken aback but his cold indifference was back within seconds.

"No. Not after what you did to Lily. Not after what you did to _me_." I said as I walked past him and out of the room, knowing full well I didn't have a place to go.


	27. Chapter 27

Ogg. I thought. I'd go to him. I had promised him a visit and now was as good a time as ever. So I snuck out of the castle, wiping my face so Ogg wouldn't see the tears still trying to force themselves out of my eyes.

I was almost at Ogg's hut when I heard the door of the castle open and shut quietly. Sighing, I knocked on Ogg's door. Luckily for me, he was still awake. Then again, it was only around 9:30.

"Sandy? What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be out of the castle right now!"

"I know I know, Ogg, but I ran into some trouble inside and you're the only person I could of to go to." I confided.

"Oh, well I'll make some tea." And he strode away to make some tea.

A few minutes later, I was sipping on my hot tea with Ogg sitting across from me. He didn't ask anything and I didn't say anything, but I was sure that he knew why I was here.

"Thanks for letting me in." I said.

"No problem, love havin' you here." he said with a smile. I smiled back.

"Seen Molly lately?" I asked him. Molly Prewett and Ogg got along really well. I liked Molly, she was so nice. She would most likely think nothing less of me even after knowing about today. She was so nice. We got along well but I hadn't seen much of her this year, but then again we weren't in the same year.

"Oh yes, she came down today right after you left actually."

"How is she?" I asked.

"She's great. Heard about today and said she thought you did the right thing to, same as I did." A smile spread over his face and I couldn't help but return it.

"She's so nice." I said.

Ogg opened his mouth to answer but a knock came at the door. Ogg went to answer it and I had a guess as to who it would be. But I was far enough away that I couldn't hear the visitors voice, only Ogg's as he answered the visitor in a not-so-nice tone.

"What do you want?" He grumbled.

Pause.

"She's fine with me."

Pause.

"I know the bloody rules of this castle! Better than you." He said loudly.

Long pause.

"One moment." His voice was rather angry.

"Sandy," Ogg whispered, entering the living room we'd been sitting in, "he says he's going to tell the Headmaster that you're here."

This made me furious. I stomped to the door and glared at Severus.

"What?" I hissed.

"Can we talk." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Go ahead." I said. "Or should I call the Headmaster first?"

"That won't be necessary." Nothing phased him.

"Just go away! I can take care of myself." I spat. It was hard to keep up this anger when I really just wanted to walk with him back to the castle and let him explain.

"I never said you couldn't."

"The go away."

"No."

I went to close the door and walk away - Ogg had waited in the living room - but Severus's hand stopped the door and held it open.

"Not until you come back to the castle." he said calmly.

"Why!? I can't go back to my common room! They're no doubt still awake!"

"Just come."

"Why?" I demanded. And the reason better be good if he wanted me to go with him. I'd crossed my arms over my chest, my stubborn pose.

"Please." I looked in his eyes to see if he meant it and saw the sincerity there.

So without saying anything, I turned and walked into the living room of Ogg's home.

"Ogg?"

"Yeah?" He asked, looking up from the chair he was in.

"I'm going back to the castle. Don't worry, I want to." I assured him. He nodded and I waved my goodbye to him.

Walking out the door, I was careful not to touch Severus as I walked past him and started walking towards the castle.

"Sandy." I didn't stop walking. "I'm sorry."

This made me stop. I spun slowly and looked at him. "_Lumos._" I whispered, taking out my wand so I could see his face.

"You know I like Lily. I didn't mean it." I turned and walked away again. He apologised to her but to me. Nothing about how _I_ was affected by this!

"Some say you love her." I grumbled, not looking at him.

"I did." Again, I froze in my tracks.

* * *

**Uh oh. She is so pissed! I would be pissed if u were her. But hey i might not make her pissed. Who knows? please read and review!**


	28. Chapter 28

"_Did_." He emphasized.

I didn't know what to feel or what to say. He used to love Lily. Would he drop me if given the chance to be with her? What did he feel for me then? My mind was reeling with questions but it stopped when Severus started talking again.

"She was the only person that ever treated nice to me." He explained.

"And so you call her a-a…_that_!?" I couldn't bring myself to say it. I hadn't forgotten that he had only apologized to for what he did to Lily and not me, but he would have to realize that on his own.

Severus didn't look away. "I don't need her or anyone else to stick up for me."

_Damn his pride! I thought angrily. I shook my head and started walking again. "Enjoy your lonely life then, Snape." I hadn't called him that in so long, it felt like I shouldn't. But I forced myself to anyway._

Severus caught my wrist and turned me around. I was surprised to see the angry expression on his face but I didn't take back what I said.

"I can't anymore." He snarled. I would have been scared if I didn't know he wouldn't hurt me.

"I don't understand," I said coolly.

"Because of you, I can't. I used to love Lily, but not anymore. I'm sorry about what I said to her but I can't take it back. James wouldn't let me."

"No more than your ego would." I mumbled but he didn't seem to hear me.

"You should be sorry! She didn't deserve that! And neither. Did. I."

"I know." His voice never gave away any emotion except anger, coldness, and indifference. You could tell by his eyes if he was ever feeling differently. Right now, his eyes were full of sincerity as they often were around me.

I relaxed my angry posture a little and waited for him to go on, if he was planning to. He did. "I know they're going to think less of you," he spat out the word 'they're', "but not for long."

"And how do you know that?" I said, the sadness I'd been trying to fight off with anger finally winning the battle.

"As much as I _despise_ them, they don't despise you."

"I don't see how that helps me."

"Go to your common room." He said, simply.

I didn't say anything, but headed back to the castle. I could hear the sound of Severus's footstep's as I walked along the pathway. Severus made no attempt at conversation and neither did I. I was far too busy keeping the overwhelming urge to cry at bay.

I sniffed loudly and blinked wildly keeping the tears inside instead of letting them fall. Opening the castle doors, I left them open for Severus and made my way to the many flights of stairs. Some of them were moving, and you had to be careful because it was impossible to tell which flight would move and when. Stopping at the base of the first flight of stairs I heard Severus stop behind me.

He'd followed me instead of heading to his own common room down in the dungeons. Before I headed up the stairs, I turned to look at him indifferently. He just stared back at me as I made my way up the stairs. I expected to hear Severus's steps fade into the distance but instead, they followed me upstairs.

I glanced behind my shoulder every once in a while, wondering why he was following me up the stairs anyway. Skipping the stair that wasn't really there, I neared the portrait into our common room.

"Holly-wobbles." I mumbled, not really caring if Severus heard me. It's not like he'd ever go in there of his own free will anyway. 

Taking a deep breath as the portrait swung open, I gave Severus one last emotionless glance before stepping into the common room. It was around 9:00 on a Saturday and so most people were still awake. Staring everyone in the eyes, I made my way to the stairs and up to my dormitory.

Eyes followed me as I walked up the stairs and muttering filled the room. The portrait clicked shut behind me when I walked in and so Severus was on the stairs. I had no idea as to why. I couldn't help but think about how much easier it would be to just go back to the Room of Requirement but realised that Severus was outside and I realised that it must be to keep me from trying to run away.

Lily wasn't in our dormitory so I changed into some different clothes and headed back down to the common room. The mutters didn't stop as I walked back out into the common room and to the portrait. I could catch only portions of what people were saying as I made my way through them.

"Severus Snape…"

"Slyherin…"

"She _protected_ him…"

It made my eyes water. With anger, not sadness. How could they all think so much less of me because I was in contact with a Slytherin? _No, because you're protecting one. Choosing him over them._

Severus was still outside the portrait. I walked by him and headed for the Room of Requirements. He grabbed my wrist so I couldn't go any farther.

"They're not in there." I snapped.

"Where did you check?"

"The dormitory." I left out that I only checked mine.

"Check theirs, not yours." Severus said as if he had read my mind.

Grunting, I headed back into the common room. More glances, more muttering. I made my way to the guys' dormitory, hoping they wouldn't be there, but hoping they would be too. To get the inevitable confrontation over with.

Sure enough, Lily was with them, sitting on the edge of a bed. They all turned to look at me when they heard me enter. Sirius and James looked cold. Remus looked pitying. Pettigrew looked disappointed and upset. Lily looked sad.

"Hi…" I said weakly, attempting to sound casual.


	29. Chapter 29

No one said anything. Remus opened his mouth as if he was going to, but closed again with another pitying look.

"I'm sorry…" I said desperately.

Lily ran up and gave me a huge, fierce hug. I didn't know what to do. James and Sirius were watching me and I didn't know how they'd react to me hugging Lily. But I did anyways.

"We were so worried when you didn't come back. We had no idea where you were!" She said, pulling away.

"You could have used the map…" I suggested, more to myself than to anyone else.

Her eyes widened and I knew that they hadn't thought of that. Or maybe they hadn't even tried…

I looked around at the rest of the group. Remus smiled at me and gave me a hug.

"We were worried." He said, as if to assure me that Lily was telling the truth. I hugged him back, glad that two of five had forgiven me at least.

Remus sat down on his bed again and I looked at Sirius and James.

Pettigrew had turned his back on me. James was staring with an odd expression. He seemed to fighting with himself as to whether he should forgive me or not. Sirius's eyes were the same.

"I'm sorry. So sorry." I said again.

"You chose him over us." James snarled.

"No! You would have been expelled if you'd hit him with that spell James! You and I both know you had something more than a Disarming spell on your mind." I said, desperately trying to explain myself.

"You protected him." Sirius said, less snarl-y than James.

"I'm just as mad about what he said to Lily as you!"

"Obviously not, or you would have let us at him." James said.

"You would have been expelled! Try hexing him or winning over Lily when you're not allowed here ever again." I said, getting frustrated.

"I'm right here you know." Lily piped in, but none of us said anything to her.

"He's _scum_." Sirius's voice dripped with hate.

"You don't have to like him! You don't have to act any differently at all! Just accept that I do." My eyes were beginning to brim with tears, as I whispered the last part.

They both heaved huge sighs and it was Sirius who answered.

"He's Slytherin scum and as soon as he messes up, he's ours."

I smiled. "You got it." I said as I flung my arms around him. I gave James a glance but seeing that he agreed with Sirius, I hugged him tightly too.

"It really was for our own good that she intervened." Remus defended me. Lily nodded in agreement.

Pettigrew still had his back to me. Light-hearted as I was at the moment, I addressed him. "Peter? Do you forgive me?" I asked him.

His pudgy form turned to face me and he looked upset still but nodded. I smiled at him, but didn't give him a hug. It was a little awkward in the room so I excused myself and headed downstairs. I was surprised to hear Lily excuse herself as well and follow me.

I stopped on the stairs and turned to her, sadness in my eyes and on my face. "Lily, I don't forgive him for what he called you! And you have to know that I, more than anyone else, know how much it isn't right. You're a better witch that most people in the senior grades! I'm so sorry but, but-" I couldn't fin the right words but didn't have to.

"Sandy, it's ok. I know. I didn't want them to hurt him either…well as bad as they were going to anyway." She smiled and I smiled back, hugging her again.

"He's outside the portrait. I should probably let him know what happened. He'll be apologising for a long time before I forgive him for this."

"Forgive him, Sandy." Lily warned.

"In time." I said.

I headed down into the room still full of muttering Gryffindors. I walked past them all, happy now that I had my friends back.

"What are you all muttering about?" Lily said loudly. "At least she _has_ somebody!"

The muttering stopped and I smiled without turning back to look at her. The portrait opened and I stepped onto the platform and looked at Severus.

"You've got some apologies to make" I told him.

He looked at me and it was almost like things were back to normal. He didn't want to apologies, I could tell.

"If you ever want me to forgive you completely, Severus, you have to apologies. To all of them."

He scowled at me but I stared at him determinedly.

"You're lucky." he snarled, but I knew he was going to do it. I gave him a quick hug and turned to go back into the common room.

"I'm going to sleep. Too much drama for one day. _Way_ too much." I said, yawning.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight." I said. He nodded and headed back to his own common room where he'd have his own peers to deal with. I wish I could help him, but I think my being there would just make it worse.

So, instead I headed into the common room where I was greeted by stares, but no more muttering. I headed to the guys' dormitory to let them know I was heading to bed and to say goodnight. I was happy when I got a goodnight from all of them in return.

I went to sleep happy, surprised that so much could happen in a single day, but happy that it had all ended well.


	30. Chapter 30

It was getting progressively colder. We realized that on our way to Hogsmeade. Or maybe it was just because we had decided to just wear our school robes outside in November. Either way, winter was coming fast and with winter came Christmas and with Christmas came the Christmas holidays.

I was already getting excited even though I had over a month left to wait. I was going to have to sneak off in Hogsmeade to get them all their presents. I had an idea of what to get all of them; they were all easy to buy for. But now there was a new addition to my present-getting list. And this new addition wasn't as easy to buy for.

What do you get a Slytherin who's only apparent hobby is Potions and disliking people? I certainly didn't know.

"Hey Lily?" I asked as we were on our way back to the common room after our trip to Hogsmeade. Our bags were hidden in our cloaks since we weren't technically allowed to go there today.

"Yeah?" She said, slowing down to match my pace. The guys took no notice to our falling behind them slightly and continued walking.

"Christmas is coming up soon and I have an idea of what to get all of you. But what do I get Severus?" I asked in a hushed tone.

"I dunno, what would he like?"

"I don't know, that's why I'm asking you!" I said, frustrated.

"Well I don't know," she said a little defensively. "You know him better than I do by now. What do you think he'd like?" she asked again.

I thought about it. "James's and Sirius's heads on a silver platter?" I said sarcastically.

"No, that wouldn't do. He'd want to do it himself." We laughed quietly.

"True. Ugh! This is going to stress me out." I complained.

"Oh yes, it's so stressful to buy your boyfriend a Christmas present. However will you cope?" Lily asked dramatically.

"Ha Ha. And he's not my boyfriend." I mumbled.

"Not your boyfriend? The what would you call him?"

"I dunno…." She looked smug so I went on, "But he never asked me to be his girlfriend and I never asked him to be my boyfriend so there!"

"You don't have to ask. Sometimes it just happens."

I didn't have a response to that so I stayed quiet and thought about what I could get him. When we reached the portrait and I still hadn't come up with anything I decided to leave it alone. _Maybe I'll see something in a shop_ I thought.

We headed to the guys' dormitory and brought our carefully hidden bags out from our robes. Most of us had gotten loads of candy but James and Sirius had stocked up on Dung Bombs and other pranking materials.

"Here," I said tossing them each a Cockroach Cluster, "on the house."

Sirius caught his and plopped it into his mouth. James, without taking his eyes off the Dung Bombs he'd purchased - he was taking inventory - caught it in his mouth.

"Show off." I mumbled. He smiled smugly in return. "You can certainly tell why you're Seeker." I said and he nodded.

Packaging up the remainder of our candy, Lily and I left the guys to do whatever it was they did before lunch. We had just filled up on candy. Right before lunch. So I wouldn't be hungry when we got down there. No doubt the guys would eat as they always did.

I was right. We made it into the Great Hall, eyes and mutters following me as I went, and sat in our usual seats. Also as usual, I looked for Severus, finding him in his seat looking at me. I smiled and was happy to see the corners of his mouth twitch up. That was the best smile I got, when other people were around anyway, and it was fine by me.

Sitting down in between Lily and Remus, my frustration must have been evident on my face because Sirius asked, "Whoa, what's wrong with you?"

"What do they all have to mutter about anymore? There's only so much you can say about it, isn't there?" The frustration was evident in my voice too.

"Yeah but there's enough to last a couple of weeks." James said.

He had a point. This situation almost never came up. Slytherins and Gryffindors didn't get along; end of story. But Severus and I were not following the plot of that story. And so it would be talked about. I would just have to ignore it. It didn't seem to be bothering Severus at all, so I wouldn't let it bother me either.

Pushing the muttering and stares out of my mind, I found it easier than I'd thought it would be. And so I enjoyed the meal, even though I hardly ate anything being as full of candy as I was. Leaving the Great Hall and ignoring the stares and mutters once again, I smiled. We had had a normal lunch together, outside of how everyone else was acting. Things were back to normal with us.

I was still smiling when I turned to give Severus a glance before I left the Great Hall. And sure enough, he was still sitting, staring at me with his cold, black eyes. But they weren't cold, despite what everyone thought. They were simply hardened. Hardened against years of being hated and tormented. But I could see past that to the true feelings he showed in his eyes.

And it was wonderful.


	31. Chapter 31

**Up in the common room, we were working on some dream logs for Divination when I came across tomorrow's date. It was a full moon.**

"**Hey Remus, it's your monthly time tomorrow." I stated casually, not taking my eyes off my work. I was sure to keep my voice down since the common room was full of students. And, of course, most of them were focused on us. Still.**

"**Yes I know." he said, sounding casual.**

**I admired how he could act so nonchalantly about it. Until the night actually came. Then he felt terrible and full of self-hatred because of what he was. We usually didn't suffer many injuries. Last month we had…but that was rare. Remus usually spent the time biting and scratching at himself. We used to, because he wanted us to, stay away and hidden so he couldn't come after us. But after seeing the injuries he suffered from himself…. We couldn't let him do that anymore.**

"**Hey, I was thinking…" Lily began but James and I cut her off.**

"**No." We said at the same time.**

"**You don't even know what I was going to say!" She said defensively.**

"**You're not coming with us tomorrow." James told her.**

**She glared at him and I knew he didn't deserve it since we were all thinking the same thing so I stepped in. "If you're going to glare at James you may as well glare at all of us because we're all thinking the same thing." I said.**

**And, as I predicted, her glare turned from James to me. Sirius, who I could see out of the corner of my, was nodding his approval and so received a glare from Lily as well. Pettigrew, after watching James and Sirius, also nodded, and Lily glared at him too. He flinched.**

**Remus spoke after she had finished glaring. "I'd prefer it if none of you came."**

"**Moony, we've been over this before." Sirius's voice warned him not to try and start something.**

**And nothing more needed to be said after that. So we headed off to bed, super early - we needed strength for tomorrow - with Lily still angry about not being able to come with us. She'd get over it though, she always did.**

**In the morning, we all grabbed our books and headed to breakfast. Now that it was the day of Remus's transformation he was acting like he always did the day of. Eating and talking as usual, we headed off to Potions. **

**Today was the first day I would be in class with everyone knowing about Severus and I. And I was ready for it. I had mentally prepared myself for it last night before I fell asleep. I had already come to terms with the fact that everyone would be staring at me and that I would probably get a few comments thrown at me by the Slytherins and maybe even some Gryffindors.**

**Walking into class I, as usual, ran into Severus. Not literally though. I saw him walking from the dungeons and I was heading towards the classroom from the opposite way. People, once they realized Severus and I were both walking towards the same class, couldn't stop staring. It was causing them to block the door into the classroom.**

**Severus reached the door at the same time as I did. It probably looked like we had it planned out or something, which we didn't. Looking up, I saw that he was staring at me. Even though everyone else was staring at us. I, not caring what was going on around me at the moment, stared back.**

"**What are they doing?"**

"**So it's true?"**

**Why is **_**she **_**with **_**him**_**?" This was from Gryffindors.**

"**Why is **_**he**_** with **_**her**_**?" This was from Slytherins.**

**Professor Slughorn, wondering why no one was entering his classroom, came out to inspect what was going on. Severus and I had stopped staring at each other once the whispers started. Me and my friends glared at people and Severus just looked at them like he always did, which was probably worse than a glare in their minds.**

"**What's going on out here? Inside everyone, inside." Slughorn said, a little impatiently.**

**We were at the back of the group of clustered students and when it was my turn to enter the classroom Slughorn offered me a pitying smile and said "It's a good match."**

**My friends heard this and once we were seated started to laugh while I put my head in my hands.**

"**It's a good match." James repeated, imitating Slughorn's voice. I guess he was comfortable enough to make fun of Severus and I.**

"**Oh yes. Now that I know that Slughorn approves, everything is perfect!" I said sarcastically and they all laughed.**

"**Even the staff knows about it. That's good gossip." Sirius commented.**

**I pretended to laugh. Inside I was glad that they seemed somewhat ok with it now. They could make fun of it at least. Although I didn't really know if that was a good thing or not. Regardless, I took it as one.**

**The class went by with glances cast my way and angry questions from the Slytherins directed towards Severus. The Gryffindors seemed more comfortable with it. The Slytherins looked at me with hostile eyes and I got a little worried for a bit.**

**Slughorn was evidently thrilled about this pairing although I suspected he wished it had been Lily and Severus since they are his two favourite students. Points were given to both houses for our work on the uses of bezoars. Gryffindors points were earned by Remus who's essay had been second best to Severus who earned Slytherin points for his essay.**

**After Potions I felt better. It was one of two classes I had with the Slytherins but the other wasn't until later. What a fun class that would be…**


	32. Chapter 32

**The classes with the Slytherins were definitely the worst out of the rest of them. Gryffindor and Slytherin classes were always a competition but now they were like a war. As if the House that did better would be the one that had the say in what went on between Severus and I. We still got stared at and whispered about but, with the help of my friends, I was getting ok with it. Plus Severus seemed totally at ease by it so I couldn't let it bug me.**

**But he was glared and at jeered at and talked about all the time. This was nothing new to him. People liked me. I wasn't used to being judged. Now was as good a time as ever to get used to it I supposed.**

**The other classes, especially the ones with Hufflepuff, were a lot better. The tension in the air was minimal whereas with the Slytherins there was so much tension it was if you were wading through water.**

**When classes for the day were done, I dropped myself into one of the comfy armchairs and sighed.**

"**That wasn't so bad." Remus said. I gave him a yeah-right look. He smiled and I smiled back.**

**After an hour or so of homework and talking, we headed to our dormitories to get drop off our books and head to supper. After that it was back to the common room for the map and Invisibility Cloak and then off to the Shrieking Shack,**

**Supper was delicious and we all ate as much as possible. It was our weak attempts at gathering strength even though we didn't need it; it was a comforting idea to Remus to know we were as healthy as possible when we followed him into the Shrieking Shack. And we did whatever we could to make him feel better about his 'furry condition' as he called it.**

**Fitting as many people as possible under the Cloak, 3 of us, the others walked behind us. Remus, who was extremely pale, James and I were under the cloak, them stooping, while Sirius and Pettigrew, who was too big to let 2 others under with him, were following behind us. We had the map with us under the cloak to find out if anyone was near our passage to the Shrieking Shack. No one was.**

**Taking off the cloak as soon as we got in the tunnel, I handed it over to James along with the map. He tucked the map into his robes and put the cloak on so only his head was visible, tapping Sirius then laughing at himself.**

**I said the incantation that would freeze the Whomping Willow momentarily, allowing us to get into the next tunnel that would lead us directly into the Shrieking Shack.**

**Pettigrew had already changed into his rat and scurried on ahead of everyone. Remus's face was as grave as it always was on these nights and we left him alone as we made our way up the stairs in the Shack. The moon wasn't out yet so we all sat on the dusty floor and waited. Pettigrew squeaked every once in a while until James told him to wait on the window sill to let us know when the moon started to rise.**

**Normally we wouldn't have to head out until 8 or 9 but because it was getting closer to winter we had to head out at around 6. It wasn't long until Peter squeaked and jumped off the window sill, a puff of dust going into the air when he landed.**

"**Show time." Sirius mumbled, turning into his huge, shaggy dog.**

**James followed by turning into his stag. I, however, put my hand on Remus's shoulder and smiled weakly at him. He was in the process of smiling back when his face became rigid with pain. I backed off a few steps. Remus yelled in pain as his bones broke and grew and he turned into a werewolf. His yells started to turn into growls and howls and I thought it was time to change.**

**When he was done and we were all sitting in our animal forms, we braced ourselves. Raising my lion-self onto my haunches, I prepared for him to launch himself at me. **

**But he went for Pettigrew first. Squealing wildly, Pettigrew dove into a small hole in the wall. Angry that his attack was unsuccessful, Remus launched himself at James next. James used his antlers to defend himself, suffering a nasty scratch to the shoulder while doing so. Sirius and I stepped in. Sirius bit at Remus's legs while I jumped onto his back and dug my claws in.**

**Growling wildly, Remus kicked Sirius off and left James alone. Using his front paws, he tried to rip me off his back unsuccessfully. But I was losing my grip. My claws slipped and I fell to the ground with a thud. As I was getting up I was swept to the side by a huge, long-clawed paw. Claws dug into my flesh, raking long gouges in my side and I roared in pain. **

**James and Sirius got Remus away from me, even little Pettigrew had locked his teeth into Remus's leg and I got up. I could feel the blood soaking through the fur on my right side. Wincing when I took a step, I caught my breath while Remus was doing the same. I could feel the blood running down my side but adrenaline made me almost numb to it. Standing up, I stayed where I was, not wanting to hurt Remus. I was still fully aware that he couldn't help himself.**

**We held him off the rest of the night, not suffering any more serious injuries. Mine and James's were the worst of the night. Sirius had a few scratches and Pettigrew was probably bruised.**

**My injury was the worst of the night and as I changed back to my human form and my adrenaline ebbed away, it got harder not to show it. I gritted my teeth when I wasn't talking and, thankfully, didn't to talk often. Remus looked at me with self-hate in his eyes.**

"**I'm fine Moony." I said as convincingly as possible and was glad to hear that the pain in my voice was almost undetectable.**

**He didn't look convinced but didn't say anything more. I wasn't about to complain about my side. One time James had almost lost an ear when Remus struck him in the face and Sirius had been bitten so hard in the leg once he had, very unwillingly, changed back to human form on the spot. These things happened. And it made Remus feel even worse about himself around this time.**

**Making our way back to the common room, Remus, myself, and James under the cloak since we had sustained the most injuries. Pettigrew did indeed have a few bruises and maybe a scratch or two while Sirius had a few cuts that were bleeding but few people were out now and it was easy for us to cover what had happened.**

**We made into the common room and the guys took Remus up to their dormitory while I headed up to mine. Not without getting a sorry glance from Remus that I shook my head at because it was unnecessary. **

**Lily was waiting in our dormitory. Odd since she usually waited for us all down in the common room. I waved to her and went to head for the bathroom but she told me to wait. So I waited while she pulled out a small fragment of parchment and handed it to me.**

"**Sev gave it me to give to you," she started, "but all it does is insult me!"**

**I couldn't help but laugh a little. "Because you're not supposed to read it."**

"**What?" She asked, confused.**

"**He only wants me to read it. Don't worry, I'm going to tell you what it says." I assured her when she looked at me expectantly.**

**I unfolded the parchment and read it. Room of Requirements. 9:00.**

"**He wants me to meet him in the Room of Requirements at 9." I told her, looking up from the parchment.**

"**Well its almost 9 now. You better hurry if you're going to make it!" She said, looking at the alarm clock by her bed.**

**She was right. I bade her farewell, promising to tell her what happened, and headed out the door. The guys were making their way to the common room and I was quick to make it out before they saw me. I didn't want to test how comfortable they really were with me going to meet Severus.**


	33. Chapter 33

**He was waiting in the hall, as usual. I didn't know why he never opened the door since he knew how but didn't question it. Once the door was opened I went inside first and he followed me, closing the door.**

**Before we got into whatever it was Severus asked me here for, I decided to thank him. "Before I forget, not that I would, thanks for apologizing to Lily."**

**I didn't expect a grand "oh it was my pleasure!" or even a "you're welcome" so I wasn't surprised when I didn't get one. I gave him a hug anyways. He tensed as usual, not quite as much this time, but slowly relaxed and put his arms around me.**

**His arm grazed my side and, in doing so, my deep cuts from earlier. The slight touch made them hurt severely and I gritted my teeth. I couldn't believe I'd forgotten them…they hadn't even stopped bleeding yet. I could, now, feel the blood that had soaked through my clothes and robes. As his arm brushed against them I could feel a new, small stream of blood trickle down my side.**

**It was my turn to tense up. Severus stepped back, his fingers gently brushing the cuts making me tense even more at the pain it brought, and looked at me. My arms dropped to my sides, my hands clenched hard into fists. Relaxing slightly, I gave him a fake confused look. He just looked at me then to his sleeve.**

**The sleeve of his over-large robe, even I could see, was wet. No doubt with my blood. I could only hope he tripped on his way here and fell in some random puddle in the corridor. I highly doubted it was likely that that had happened, even at Hogwarts with Peeves about.**

"**What happened?" he asked, sort of demanded really.**

**I played stupid. I knew this never worked with Severus but it was worth a shot. "What?" I asked, sounding confused. Convincing too, but this was Severus we were talking about.**

**He looked at his fingertips and saw blood on them. Then he used the his right hand to brush the sleeve of his right arm, causing even more blood to appear on it.**

"**What happened?" He demanded angrily looking up from his hand to me. I was sure that a tiny portion of his anger was directed at me because I wasn't telling him what had happened but most of it was directed at whatever or whoever had done it.**

"**It's nothing." I said trying to calm him down. I muttered the spell that would fix the wounds with my wand pointed at my side but I wasn't focused and it didn't work completely.**

"**What happened?" he repeated, just as angrily as before.**

"**We were roaming the Forbidden Forest and had a brush with something." I lied. I was a convincing liar and this one was convincing too so I had no idea how he knew I was lying.**

"**And what did you have a brush with?" He didn't believe me. Not one bit. The contempt in his voice towards whatever he thought did this proved that.**

"**A werewolf." I told him honestly.**

"**What was its name?" he asked.**

**Now I got defensive. "I hardly had time to ask!"**

"**How'd you get away?"**

"**The guys." I didn't add that Remus was not included because he had been the werewolf in this situation.**

"**Excluding Lupin." And that's who he wasn't happy with at the moment.**

**I was taken aback. **_**How does he know!?**_** I thought frantically. "Wh-What?" Was all I could think of to say.**

"**I know he's a werewolf." And the jig was up.**

"**How?" I dropped the lie immediately. There was no point in it if Severus knew. But how could he know?**

**He brushed the question aside. "Why'd he do this?" His voice was full of hatred. Directed at Remus.**

"**He didn't mean to!" I said loudly, jumping to Remus's defence immediately. He wasn't aware of what he did until after he transformed back to a human. He couldn't help it. So I told Severus just that. "He can't help what he does like that! He doesn't know what he's doing!"**

"**Yes he does."**

"**Severus! No he doesn't! He's looked countless times for a spell, a potion, anything that would make him at least able to control himself! Dumbledore found us the Shrieking Shack so he doesn't hurt anyone here but there's only so much he can do. I'm sure he knows of something that can help, he's Dumbledore. He wants us to find it for ourselves."**

**It was a sort of revelation as I said it. A revelation as to why Dumbledore didn't help us further. It was very like Dumbledore to want us to discover things for ourselves. What a brilliant man.**

**Severus looked down at his hand covered in my now-drying blood. It grossed me out to see my blood on his hands. I didn't like it at all. Severus looked back up at me and the hatred was still in his eyes, only not quite as strong.**

"**Leave him alone Severus. He feels terrible already and this is nothing to compared to some of the other injuries we've got." I said.**

**He breathed heavily once but his eyes slowly lost the hatred in them. "Wolfsbane." He said.**

"**What?" I asked. That sounded familiar to me but I couldn't place it at the moment. I was busy worrying about whether or not he was going to confront and hurt Remus. And trying not to show the pain that was throbbing in my side ever since I remembered the cuts there.**

"**It's a potion. It lets werewolves keep a human mind-frame in werewolf form." He explained. He sounded reluctant to be helping one of them.**

**I smiled. "Really? How did Remus miss it in all his searches?" I asked myself.**

"**He wouldn't be able to make it anyway." Severus sounded quite sure of himself.**

"**And you could?" I asked, a little harshly. He either didn't notice or he didn't care.**

"**Maybe. Best get Slughorn to do it."**

"**Thank you!" I said, hugging him. He was careful to leave my right side alone this time.**


	34. Chapter 34

I never did find out what Severus had really wanted. After our discussion about Remus and Wolfsbane, I fixed myself up properly. My robes were still torn and bloodied but that was easily fixed as well. We bade each other goodnight and I went to the Gryffindor Tower while he went to the dungeons where the Slytherin common room was.

I wanted more than anything to go to the library but it was after curfew and my only chance was with the Invisibility Cloak. I would just go to Dumbledore tomorrow.

Upon returning to the common room, my friends were still awake.

"Where were you?" Sirius asked.

"Doing research." I said, lying a little.

"About?" James asked.

"Remus." I stated simply.

Remus's head snapped up and looked at me. "What?" He asked, confusion apparent in his voice.

"There's a potion called Wolfsbane-" I began, but was interrupted.

"That lets werewolves keep human mind-frames while transformed." Remus finshed for me.

"Um...yeah. If you've known about it why didn't you say anything?" I asked him, surprised.

"We can't make it."

"Slughorn can." I insisted.

"I can't just ask him to do it." Remus also insisted.

"You wouldn't have to! Ask Dumbledore! He already knows about it."

"If Dumbledore knows about this potion why didn't he tell us before?" James asked.

"This is Dumbledore we're talking about. He always wants people to figure things out for themselves. He never just gives a straight answer. You have to look for it." I said.

"But when the safety of his students is concerned…? Don't you think it's a bit far?" Lily asked. I looked at her, surprised. She was always on my side with these things.

"Whatever then. I'll ask him about it." And with that I headed out of the common room and towards Professor Dumbledore's office.

I knocked on his door twice and stood back. "Enter," came Dumbledore's voice but before I could touch the door handle, the door swung open.

I walked into his office. He was sitting behind his desk, inspecting a small silver instrument with many pieces sticking out from it. It was a very odd looking artefact and I wondered what in the wizarding world it was. And how Dumbledore came across such interesting things. But now, I had more important matter to ask about.

"A curious thing indeed." Dumbledore said looking at the thing in his hands and setting it down. "But I don't think you came here to ask about it. What can I do for you Sandy?" He looked at me over the top of his half-moon spectacles.

"I was wondering if a Wolfsbane potion would be able to help Remus out with his furry condition." I told him.

Dumbledore smiled. "Yes, it would. How did you come across this?"

"Severus Snape told me about it."

"Ah, yes. He ought to know about it. Why didn't Mr. Lupin come to me?" He sounded curious, almost like he was daydreaming.

"He thinks that if you'd known about it then you would have told us instead of letting your students be put in danger at the full moon." I explained. I had no problems confiding in Dumbledore. He always found out eventually so there was no point in lying. Not that I would ever lie to him.

"And you disagree." It was a statement.

"Yes." Dumbledore didn't say anything so I guessed that he was waiting for an explanation. "I think that you wanted us to find out for ourselves."

He smiled again. "Quite right. Jellybean?" He offered me the box.

I stuck my hand in and picked out a few, popping them into my mouth. Dumbledore did so as well. He looked like he was pondering something as he chewed. "Earwax." He said, looking pleased.

I got grass, popcorn, and soap. Swallowing our jellybeans, Dumbledore took out a piece of parchment and a quill. He started writing on the parchment in his slanting script and I waited, not sure if this was a dismissal or not. Dumbledore put the ink and quill away and placed the letter aside.

"I will tell Professor Slughorn to make some first thing tomorrow." This was a dismissal.

"Thank you so much Professor!" I said happily.

"Dumbledore," he corrected me and I smiled even more.

"Thank you so much Dumbledore!" I turned to leave but his voice stopped me once again.

"I'd fix those robes, you don't want someone thinking you got in a fight now do we?" He said and with a flick of his wand, my clothes repaired and cleaned themselves. I smiled and nodded at him. "I'd also be careful on your way back to the common room. This corridor is usually occupied about now." The meaning behind his words was clear. The caretaker was in this corridor and I should be careful so as not to get caught.

I ran through the corridor without getting spotted thanks to Dumbledore's hint and made it to the Gryffindor common room without a spot of trouble. The group was still there. We were going to be tired tomorrow. It was nearing 11:30 already.


	35. Chapter 35

"So?" James asked.

"He's getting Slughorn to make it." I said curtly.

"That's great!" Lily exclaimed.

"Why hadn't he told us about it?" Remus asked.

"Like I said, he wanted us to figure it out for ourselves. Help us learn things and such." I told him, keeping the edge out of my voice but still sounding somewhat triumphant.

No one said anything so I excused myself to get ready for bed. Lily followed me, saying goodnight to everyone. We headed to the bathroom and I changed and got ready in a rush. Now that all the adrenaline and excitement of discovery was gone, the exhaustion settled in.

"Night Lily." I said. I had made and executive decision to skip our usual talking before bed and just get to the sleeping part. I was happy when it came almost instantly.

Lily, as usual, woke me up the next morning. I stretched as I stumbled to the bathroom to get ready for class. Lily was cheery as she always was in the morning, seeming to be completely awake and not tired at all. I didn't know how she could be.

"I wish I was a morning person," I mumbled, yawning.

She smiled as she ran a brush through her red hair. As we were getting ready I caught her casting glances in my direction every once in a while. I didn't know why but wasn't in the mood for asking questions and so kept quiet. I knew that if she wanted to tell me, she would.

She put the brush down and faced me. "How are you and Sev doing?"

Her question took me aback. I stopped mid-brush - I was brushing my teeth when she decided to voice her question - and looked at her, confused. "…Fine." I said, not sure what the right answer was.

"Are you ever going to go public?" She asked.

"Go public? I think we're pretty public." I didn't understand her point.

"Well yes, in that way but I mean public as in being seen together in public."

"What?" I said. That hadn't helped my confusion.

"Are you and him ever going to hang out in public? You're always tired because you have don't get back until late so you can go see him and if you just spent time together in public, you wouldn't have to," she explained.

I looked at the ground. I thought I'd been doing a good job at hiding how tired I was, but apparently I wasn't. _I wonder if the others know too_… I hoped not.

"I dunno…maybe." I'd never thought about it. It would make things a lot easier.

"It'll help people get used to it sooner." Lily said, sounding like she was encouraging me to do it.

"I'll talk to him about it." I told her.

"In public?" She asked. I didn't say anything and she gave a small smile and she walked out of the bathroom ahead of me.

_Maybe I should talk to him about it I thought. It's inevitable, isn't it? May as well get everyone used to it now. Better sooner then later. And just like that, without even realizing it, I'd made up my mind to so it._

Severus and I were going to spend time together. I was surprised to feel my heart give a happy flutter at the idea. But when would I tell him?

I had an idea. Grabbing a piece of parchment, I tore off the corner of it. Rummaging through my bag, I grabbed a quill and inkpot. Quickly twisting the cap off the inkpot, I dipped the quill in and scribbled my note onto the parchment. Folding it in half I put the note in the pocket of my robes, put my stuff back in my bag and headed downstairs to the common room.

My friends were all ready for breakfast and together we headed down to the Great Hall. Upon entering my eyes sought out Severus, It was natural now, a habit, part of my daily routine. Finding him staring at me, as was part of his routine, I smiled. His mouth twitched slightly at the corners, our usual greeting. Except this time, people were watching the exchange occur. Ignoring their somewhat disgusted looks, I sat down.

Breakfast was delicious and I was happy as I walked to Potions, but nervous also. I saw Severus walking towards the door and when I reached it, I looked into his eyes and pushed the note I'd written earlier into his hand, not really caring if anyone saw. They'd all know soon enough.

Severus looked down to his hand and back to me. I guessed he thought I was telling him to meet me at the Room of Requirement tonight but he was in for a surprise. Sitting in my seat beside Lily, I glanced over to see Severus opening the note.

Professor Slughorn was instructing the class to open their textbooks to page 298 and as I did so, I kept an eye on Severus, gauging his reaction. His eyes scanned the parchment then looked over at me. They were indifferent, not giving away his emotion. I had no idea what he was feeling right now.

He folded the parchment back up and put it in the pocket of his robes. I took this as a good sign. He hadn't crumpled it or ripped it to shreds so I felt it safe to assume he wasn't overly upset or angry about the note. Maybe he was even happy about it.

I could only wait and see.

Potions went by quickly, as did the rest of the classes before lunch. Lunch flew by as well and I found myself twiddling my thumbs nervously in the classes preceding supper. At supper, I ate slowly, hoping to slow down the time which had seemed to speed up today.

There were few classes left after supper and I was even more nervous. Glancing out the windows, I found the light slowly diminishing. The sun was setting but it would still be somewhat light out by the time classes for the day were finished.

"Where are you headed?" Remus asked as I handed Lily my books to take back to the common room.

"I'm sure you'll see soon enough." I said quietly. Remus looked confused but I didn't elaborate.

Waving, I walked in the opposite direction as them. They headed to the common room while I headed outside to the lake. To meet Severus.


	36. Chapter 36

**I was at the lake before Severus was and I couldn't seem to sit still. I stood still, tapping my foot or rocking on my heels. Then I started pacing. During my pacing, I saw Severus walking towards me from the distance.**

**There were few people outside now as it was getting darker. However, the few that were outside looked at us then to each other and hurried inside. No doubt to spread the word. These thoughts were forced out of my mind as Severus reached me.**

**He didn't say anything, but looked at me. "Hey." I said shyly, like the first time I'd ever greeted him.**

"**Hey," he said.**

"**Yeah, so Lily seems to think we should 'go public," I formed quotations in the air with my hands. "And I-"**

"**You agree." Severus finished for me.**

"**Yes." When Severus didn't answer, I continued. "People will get used to us faster then. They won't have a choice." I'd never said 'us' before and it sent a thrill through me. Severus's eyes, which had already been staring into mine, grew intense when he heard it.**

**He nodded. I smiled. So he **_**was**_** ok with this. **_**Good**_** I thought. I started to walk back to the castle, it was freezing out and getting darker every minute. Severus walked by my side.**

**Students had begun filing onto the grounds as soon as the other students had gone inside when Severus was first walking towards me. Now the grounds were full of students and I could Lily, James, Pettigrew, Sirius, and Remus in the front of the crowd; Lily was smiling.**

**Severus and I walked towards the crowd, not stopping as we neared it. Whispers erupted but I made no attention to them and kept walking. Severus and I made our through the throng of mumbling students and into the castle. Heads turned to watch us leave and after a while, the students dispersed. They went back into the castle as well, watching us as they walked by.**

**I looked up at Severus to see him looking straight ahead, his eyes cold like they always were. He must have seen me staring at him because he looked down at me as we walked and the coldness in his eyes melted away at once. They were just as intense.**

**I was the first to look away; I always was. He could stare, transfixed, on an object for an unnaturally long time. **

**We were walking in silence, comfortable silence. People were still looking at us as we walked. We were coming up to where we would part. I would go down the corridor and up the stairs to the Gryffindor Tower while he would go in the opposite direction and down to the dungeons where the Slytherin common room and dormitories were.**

**When we reached our parting place, neither of us said anything. We just stopped walking. I was the first to break the silence.**

"**Do you think everyone will get used to us?" The thrill went through me again.**

**Severus shrugged. "Doesn't matter." He was looking at me intently.**

**The corridor we were in was devoid of people. Upon entering the castle, everyone had headed back to their dorms. It was almost curfew and Severus and I had been walking slowly. The majority of students had passed us, including my friends. Sirius, James, and Pettigrew had pointedly kept their faces forward but Lily had grinned at us and Remus looked happy.**

**In the empty corridor, we stared intently at each other. Without realizing what I was doing, I slowly raised myself on my tip-toes. Even then, I wasn't tall enough so I gently placed my hands on Severus's shoulders and he leaned closer.**

**In my trance-like state, I wasn't aware of anything going on about me. All I was focused on was the space between Severus and I and how quickly it was disappearing.**

**Before I knew it, my lips had met his. He stiffened immediately, but didn't pull away.**

**The kiss lasted I have no idea how long, and when we pulled apart, we stared at each other. My lips were tingling, butterflies had found their way into my stomach, and my heart was pounding in my chest. All because of a simple, closed-mouthed kiss.**

**This time, I didn't look away from him. Severus Snape. He didn't look away either. His eyes were more intense than I'd ever seen them. But there was warmth in the intensity.**

"**Goodnight." I whispered to him, still staring.**

"**Goodnight." He was still staring.**

**I found it difficult to pull my eyes away and turn around to walk to the common room. As soon as I did and had started walking up the stairs, a huge grin spread across my face and I couldn't remember a time when I'd been happier.**


	37. Chapter 37

I arrived back at the common room in a state of elation. Not even caring what people would suspect once they saw the huge grin still plastered on my face. Many eyes looked towards me when I entered through the hole created when the portrait swung open, including those of my friends.

Ignoring everyone, I waved happily to my friends and headed upstairs to my dormitory and my bed. I felt giddy and was sure that if I tried to speak at the moment, my words wouldn't come out comprehensibly. My mind was still fuzzy from the small kiss. And that was just a small one! I wondered what would happen with a bigger kiss…

I was interrupted in my thought of Severus and I when Lily walked into the room. I sat up on my bed and looked at her. I knew what she was here for and was quite sure that playing stupid now would be pointless.

"Why are you so happy?" I could hear the smile in her voice as plain as I could see it on her face as she spoke.

I didn't know what to say. I knew how'd she react if I told her what had really happened and it would involve a lot of squealing on her part and a lot ear-plugging on my part. But what else could I say to her? I was a good liar, but there wasn't a lie available for this. So I told her the truth.

"WHAT!?" She squealed after I'd told her.

I couldn't help but smile at her excitement. "You mean you've forgiven him for…what he called you?" I asked her.

"Oh no. To be honest, I don't think I will. In with a bad crowd, he is." She said, seemingly unaware that I liked this person she was speaking about.

"Yeah I know…but still…" I said, trailing off as I spoke. It was true. Severus didn't have many friends, I hadn't thought he had had any until recently. But it turns out he does. Avery and Mulciber. Two wannabe Death Eaters. I was worried that Severus would follow them and hoped more than anything that he wouldn't but I never let myself think about it.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean-" She started but I cut her off.

"No, you're right. But if he turns into a Death Eater…he'll be sorry, that's for sure." I said, smiling slightly to let her know I wasn't upset with her.

Lily smiled back and squealed again to bring back the excited that had evaporated. I grinned again as the memory replayed in my mind and sighed a small sigh. Lily was smiling at me hugely, happy for me even though she wasn't particularly fond of Severus. She, unlike James and Sirius, could see that he wasn't so bad. Obviously he could care for other people; he cared for me didn't he? But they didn't see that. They just saw the same person everyone else did.

"They're going to ask questions you know." Lily warned as I sat up.

I grimaced a little. "Of course. They're probably more nosy about it than you are. But not in a good way." I said. She laughed.

"Now come on, they're just being good friends." She defended them, clearly not meaning it.

"Yeah, if good friends want something to mess up between their friend and the object of her liking so they can hex the said object then yes, they are excellent friends." I said.

Lily smiled again and we headed downstairs. I was busy trying to think of a lie that would suit the situation but there wasn't anything I could think of. Many things made me happy but I was sure I looked happier than usual when I walked into the common room earlier. Much, much happier.

As Lily and I had predicted, there were questions. "So Sandy, why so happy?" Sirius asked.

"It was a good day." I told him honestly.

"And why's that?" James asked.

I knew they didn't believe and I had yet to come up with a good enough lie. "Christmas is near?" I said it as a question, knowing they wouldn't buy it.

It was true though, Christmas was in a month! And I'd yet to get them all their presents! But I digress…

"Is that so?" Remus asked, trying not to laugh.

"Are you sure it's not because you snogged the grease ball?" James asked.

I rounded on him defensively. "I did _not_ snog him!" I said loudly.

"So it was just a regular kiss?" That was Sirius.

I glared at him. He was enjoying this. _Git…_ I thought. "No." I said, defensively again. My defensiveness, I'm sure, made them not believe me. Or maybe it was because they'd caught me in one of my rare unconvincing lies.

James looked disgusted, as did Sirius. But Sirius let out a laugh at my obvious frustration and embarrassment. I didn't even look at Remus who, I suspected, had a grin on his face. Pettigrew, however, I had to look at as my eyes looked to Lily. He looked extremely disappointed and hurt but I paid him no mind. Lily had pity in her eyes but amusement at the same time.

So they were all on the same side. Finding my amusement…amusing. What good friends.

My cheeks were burning and I was sure they were a nice bright red color, rivaling that of Lily's hair.


	38. Chapter 38

They continued making fun of me for 'snogging' Severus, which I didn't do, for a few minutes until Lily finally took my side and helped me put an end to it. My cheeks had been nearing the colour of beets by the time it was over; partly from embarrassment and partly from frustration.

I decided to leave the guys, and Lily, to continue laughing at me in private while I went to bed. I knew as soon as I left James and Sirius would have some disgusted comment to say. They said plenty of them while I was there but no doubt saved the worst for when I left.

At least they were nice enough to wait.

Back in my dormitory, I got ready for bed, quite sure that I would have trouble getting to sleep that night. Which, given the amazing day and night I had, is understandable.

Once I was in my pyjamas with my teeth brushed I looked longingly at the four poster bed awaiting me. I was tired; all the elation must have tired me out. I grimaced as I got under the covers, hoping I would be able to fall asleep. But doubting it nonetheless.

Sighing, I closed my eyes and let the memories of today fill my head and just replay over and over again. I knew I was smiling but didn't even think of what anyone entering the form would think about it. I was completely engrossed in the memory of today that kept replaying in my mind. Lily would understand why I was smiling if she happened to walk in, but I was fine with that.

Surprisingly, I fell asleep quickly. It was only 20 minutes or so until I drifted into a dreamless sleep.

I woke up happy the next morning, sure that I would be waking up this way every day for at least a week. Even if Severus and I had no contact for a week, the feelings from last night would carry on for a week. At least.

Lily was already awake and was on her way to my bed when I sat up to let her know I wasn't in need of waking. She saw me and smiled mischievously. I didn't like the look on her face.

"…What?" I asked tentatively.

"You were talking in your sleep last night." Her smile was still there.

I could feel my face getting slightly redder. I didn't even dream last night! "…About?" I asked, even more tentatively than before.

"What do you think?" She asked sarcastically.

My face grew even redder. I was sure there was only  
one thing I would have been talking about last night. And that was Severus Snape.

I didn't answer her. "Yep. That's it." She said, knowing I'd guessed what it had been about.

"Don't tell the guys. They could barely control themselves last night; I don't think they'd take too kindly to me talking about him in my sleep."

"It's me. I'm not going to tell them anything." Lily's smiled turned into a kind one.

"Thanks." I smiled back.

"Now get up before we're late to breakfast." Lily got up and I grabbed my clothes out of my trunk.

Once we were both ready for classes, we headed down to the common room. The guys were there waiting for us, looking impatient.

"Well don't just stand there, let's go!" I said, ushering them through the portrait hole and into the hallway.

We made our way through the many corridors and down the many staircases to the Great Hall. We passed many students and I was surprised by the silence that followed us. It was like it had been before everyone knew about Severus and I. There were a few comments regarding the lack of pranks lately - everyone but most Gryffindors were quite happy about it.

I was puzzling over this as we came up to the entrance to the Great Hall and didn't notice the silence when I walked into it. It wasn't exactly silent. But no one was murmuring about Severus and I. No one was even looking at me as I looked for his face among the sea of students.

Severus was looking at me, as usual and I smiled, as usual. His mouth twitched up and I could see what no one else could in his eyes. _Time is all it took_ they seemed to say. He knew everyone would get over it and that's why he had never been bothered by it. That and the fact that he can take anything thrown at him.

I kept smiling as I sat down with my friends, for the first time in what seemed like forever, like regular students.

My smile stayed on my face for a while before fading away.

As the food appeared on the plates, we talked like regular students and for once I could put myself completely into the conversation. No one was listening in on what we had to say. They were over it.

Lily had been right. Going 'public' would make them get used to it faster. But neither of us knew it would happen this soon! But I was glad it had.

Classes had gone by much like breakfast had. No one muttered or held us up. When we met in front of the Potions room we looked at each other and no one paid any mind to us. We were officially just another couple. Of course, there was the odd glance every now and then and the Slytherins weren't completely over it but it was the best we were going to get. And I was fine with it.

Lunch, supper, and the rest of my classes were better than they had been in days. I was sure my friends would notice how much more comfortable I was now that I wasn't always the center of attention.. They seemed to all lighten up a bit too.

After classes had ended I told my friends I'd meet them later and headed to the lake. Severus and I hadn't decided to meet tonight but I just felt like going there. So it's no wonder I was surprised, and happy, to be joined by Severus on my way to the lake.

"Hey." I looked up at him and smiled.

He looked at me and for the second time since knowing him a true, genuine smile appeared on his face. It took my breath away.

Still smiling, I found myself unable to look away from him. Arriving at the lake, we just stood there staring at each other. No one was around and it was slowly getting darker and darker outside. The sun was slowly lowering itself and Severus and I were standing by the lake.

"So we're just like everyone else now." Severus commented, looking away from me and out onto the black surface of the lake.

"Like everyone else?" I asked.

Severus looked back to me, his intense stare making me feel warm inside instead of the chill it gave most people.

"We're A Gryffindor and a Slytherin. Together. We are far from being like everyone else." I said, looking out onto the lake. I could see Severus follow m gaze from the corner of my eye.

After a few moments of silence I turned and looked at him. "Good." He said. He looked at me and it seemed almost like he was wondering if I felt the same. So decided to let him know how I felt about the subject of us being different.

I smiled. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

And with that I tilted my head up and hugged him as he leaned down and hugged me back, our faces slowly getting closer and closer. He was tensing, but I knew he couldn't help it.

Our lips met and my hand hesitantly rested on his chest. His hands were on my lower back, holding me close. No one would ever have guessed that Severus Snape, the heartless Slytherin and sworn enemy of the Gryffindors, would end up giving his heart to one. We were young and so I knew things could change in a second but I couldn't help but give him my heart too. And I trusted him with it.

Completely.

* * *

**Please tell me what you think. i know its been a while**


End file.
